Donald Trump nominated a senior State Department official to lead the agency that oversees the Voice of America and other U.S. government broadcasters, after a federal judge invalidated layoffs and other actions taken by the president’s appointee, Kari Lake.
Sarah B. Rogers, who has been serving as under secretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs, was nominated as CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, according to a court filing on Thursday.
The president also appointed Michael Rigas, deputy secretary of state, to serve as acting CEO. Lake said that she will continue to serve as deputy CEO.
Last week, a federal judge ruled that Lake had been leading the agency in violation of the law, concluding that she had been the “de facto” CEO as she carried out a downsizing of the agency that left the best known of its entities, Voice of America, reduced to just a shell of a news organization.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth wrote that the Vacancies Act requires that the acting head of an agency have been a senior officer at an agency or a Senate-confirmed official, which Lake was not. The judge found that the efforts to designate authority to Lake “were an unlawful effort to transform” her into the CEO of the agency “in all but name.” His ruling voided a number of her actions, including massive staff reductions.
Lamberth also ordered the Trump administration to provide a plan for leadership of the agency, given his ruling.
Trump signed an executive order in March, 2025 to dismantle the U.S. Agency for Global Media to the minimum level required by statute. Even though Trump has targeted VOA, by law, the outlet is to remain independent of political influence, out of fears that it otherwise would become a president’s propaganda arm.
Lake, a former news broadcaster who waged two unsuccessful bids for governor and then U.S. senator from Arizona, posted on X on Thursday, “President Trump tasked me with right-sizing USAGM, a taxpayer-funded global media agency. We’ve been so effective over the last year that the Deep State has done everything they can to stop us, including launching malicious lawsuits at me and the agency. A rotund DC District Court judge wants me OUT of the agency, but despite his absurd orders and rulings, I remain in the exact same position today as I was before: Deputy CEO — where I am even more determined to finish the job.”
