Voice of America director Michael Abramowitz has been notified that his employment will end on August 31 after he rejected a reassignment to manage the Edward R. Murrow transmitting station in Greenville, North Carolina—a move he called illegal in a filing to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. A letter from U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) senior adviser John Zadrozny cited “failure to accept directed geographic reassignment” as cause for termination and gave Abramowitz 30 days’ notice.
Abramowitz already sued USAGM and senior adviser Kari Lake in March, arguing that Donald Trump’s executive order to dismantle the agency violated the Administrative Procedure Act and that any attempt to remove a VOA director requires approval from the International Broadcasting Advisory Board, which the administration dismissed in January. His attorneys told the court the firing “comes in the middle of litigation about defendants’ willingness to follow the law,” noting that Judge Royce Lamberth had recently chastised officials for sidestepping an injunction that ordered VOA operations restored.
The reassignment ultimatum arrived July 26, weeks after Lake—who has served as USAGM’s de facto chief while her formal appointment stalls—sent reduction-in-force notices to most VOA staff, a step briefly rescinded amid procedural errors. Hundreds of employees remain on paid leave, and radio and television signals from several VOA services have been dark since March’s budget freeze.
Federal court filings show Abramowitz refused the Greenville post, arguing that moving the agency’s top journalist to a technical relay site would gut editorial leadership and contravene statutory safeguards intended to shield VOA from political interference. Judge Lamberth has demanded the government explain why it failed to inform him of the reassignment before issuing it, calling the maneuver “shocking” in a July 29 order.
USAGM declined comment on the ongoing litigation, while Lake has defended the personnel shake-ups as necessary to eliminate bureaucracy and redirect scarce funds. Abramowitz, a former Freedom House president appointed to VOA in 2023, told colleagues the dispute is “not about me personally but about preserving the rule of law and VOA’s mission of delivering fact-based news to the world.”
