Kari Lake — the figurehead tapped by Donald Trump to lead the U.S. Agency for Global Media, or USAGM, where her leadership may not even be legally sanctioned — admitted this week that she had prevented Radio Free Europe from broadcasting into Iran, as she faces ongoing allegations of hampering the congressionally funded organization in ways that undermine U.S. diplomacy.

Writer Oliver Darcy reported in his Status newsletter this week that Lake had denied Radio Free Europe access to a USAGM transmitter in Kuwait that would allow it to broadcast into Iran amid the regime’s deadly crackdown on protesters. The decision has hampered the outlet’s ability to reach the Iranian public at a time when the government had blacked out internet access.

In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Lake said she had denied Radio Free Europe access because, in her opinion, the outlet had failed to “better align their message with American foreign policy.” 

For a sense of Lake’s judgment on what such alignment might look like, consider that Lake previously vowed to strip funding from Radio Free Europe over its Hungarian outlet’s critical coverage of Trump’s authoritarian ally Viktor Orban.

Even in the face of rebukes from federal judges, Lake hasn’t let up in her effort to undermine, if not outright destroy, the media agency. Nor has criticism of Lake’s leadership at USAGM been confined to the judiciary. Last year, Lake was denounced by the conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board for gutting Radio Farda, Radio Free Europe’s Persian language service, which provided coverage to Iranians.

Lake, who’s rumored to be considering yet another possible Senate run, does seem to hint at what it might mean to align with American foreign policy under Trump. Her post said that Voice of America Farsi — which she also gutted before reversing course last summer — has been leading USAGM’s broadcasts into Iran.

As former VOA correspondent Steve Herman wrote in a recent blog about Lake’s destructive tenure at USAGM, VOA’s Persian news network is now under the direction of journalist Ali Javanmardi, whose appointment, in the words of one critic, “prioritizes politics, symbolism, or strategic calculation over integrity.”

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