Kari Lake’s Attempt to Revive Trump-era DOJ Arguments Dismissed by Judge Upholding Constitutional Integrity

In a significant legal victory for dismissed employees, a federal judge has determined that Kari Lake’s actions from July to November 2025, while she claimed to be the acting CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), are “void.” The judge’s decision was based on the fact that Lake was not legally serving in that position.

Senior U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, known for his conservative credentials and appointed by President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, issued the ruling over the weekend. He highlighted the Department of Justice’s previous court losses concerning interim or acting U.S. attorney appointments. The ruling specifically found that the Trump administration’s decision to place Lake at the helm of the USAGM breached the Federal Vacancies Reform Act (FVRA).

Kari Lake, who has faced numerous legal challenges, became a focal point for litigation following President Donald Trump’s second-term efforts to restructure the Voice of America (VOA) and other government-funded media entities. Among the lawsuits against Lake was one filed by Patsy Widakuswara, a former VOA White House bureau chief, challenging Lake’s authority as senior adviser, deputy CEO, and acting CEO of the USAGM.

Judge Lamberth’s ruling was informed, in part, by a January decision from another judge, which nullified grand jury subpoenas issued to New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office. These subpoenas were issued by John Sarcone, who claimed to be the acting U.S. attorney and a special attorney under U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi’s supervision. Sarcone sought documents related to James’ civil fraud lawsuit against President Trump and his family business, as well as her lawsuit against the NRA. However, like many of Bondi’s temporary appointees who had not been confirmed by the Senate, Sarcone’s appointment was ruled unlawful, and his involvement in the investigations was prohibited. Consequently, these subpoenas were deemed “invalid.”

John Sarcone claimed to be the acting U.S. attorney — through his role as first assistant U.S. attorney — and a special attorney wielding U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi’s supervisory authority when he subpoenaed James’ office for documents on her civil fraud lawsuit against President Donald Trump and his family business and on her lawsuit against the NRA. Like many other Bondi non-Senate-confirmed temporary appointees, Sarcone was eventually found to have been unlawfully appointed and disqualified from “any further involvement in prosecuting or supervising the instant investigations, regardless of his title.” Here, the remedy was rendering the subpoenas “invalid.”

Lamberth’s remedy for Lake was to invalidate her actions — mass firings included — during the time period she claimed authority she did not possess.

“As a consequence, any actions taken by Lake during her asserted tenure as acting CEO between July 31 and November 19, 2025, including but not limited to the August 29 reduction-in-force effort, or actions taken pursuant to the March or July delegations of CEO authority, are void,” the judge wrote.

In support of his conclusion, Lamberth pointed to both the DOJ’s failure to defend the appointment of Alina Habba as acting U.S. attorney and Sarcone’s loss.

Habba was the interim U.S. attorney in New Jersey into the summer, when her temporary stint was set to expire. Rather than sitting idly by as the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey appointed Habba’s first assistant, Desiree Grace, to lead the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Habba resigned, Grace was fired, and Bondi replaced Grace with Habba as a special attorney and first assistant, elevating Habba once again to the top role.

Ultimately, a judge ruled and a panel affirmed that Habba could not lawfully be the acting U.S. attorney under the FVRA because she was not the first assistant when the vacancy arose. The same fate befell Lake, not in place as the second-in-command when ex-acting CEO Victor Morales tried to “transform Lake into the CEO of U.S. Agency for Global Media in all but name.”

“Agreeing with other judicial decisions that have addressed this question, the Court concludes that Lake’s argument is inconsistent with the text and structure of the Vacancies Act,” Lamberth said. “Instead, subsection (a)(1) applies only to a first assistant who occupies that position at the time the vacancy occurs. Because Lake was not first assistant at the time of the vacancy, she lacks authority to serve as the acting CEO.”

Nor could Lake’s recycling of the DOJ’s failed complaint about “upend[ing] the functioning of the Executive Branch” persuade Lamberth to do “violence” to the Constitution, he added.

“Allowing the President to circumvent Congress’s carefully crafted limitations in this way,” Lamberth said, would make a “vestigial surplusage” of the statute and “the advice-and-consent requirement” for principal officers. “The Court declines Lake’s invitation to do such violence to the statutory and constitutional scheme.”

Lake reportedly reacted to the ruling by calling Lamberth an “activist judge.”