Most people probably haven’t heard of the U.S. Agency for Global Media. But your tax money has been funding up to a billion dollars a year to keep it going. Its stated purpose is to beam America’s voice to the world, promoting freedom and democracy. But the Agency has become mired in allegations of misuse, corruption, and propaganda gone amok. Today, we look at the high profile battle to clean it up then eliminate it altogether.

The following is a transcript of a report from “Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson.”
Watch the video by clicking the link at the end of the page.

The U.S. Agency for Global Media has been the subject of a tug of war since President Trump named Kari Lake to lead it and ultimately shut it down. Lake is a former candidate for governor in Arizona, and former TV news anchor.

A judge recently ruled that Lake’s appointment didn’t meet Senate confirmation requirements, and so her tenure, mass layoffs, and other actions to dismantle the agency are void.

The new nominated head is Sarah Rogers. Lake stays on as Deputy CEO. She says she discovered massive problems there.

Kari Lake: When I first got into the agency, I started pulling all kinds of documents, looking at various agreements, looking at many of the past investigations they had done on alleged corruption in the agency. And as I dug through all of that, I realized, ‘Oh my gosh, this thing is even worse than I heard it was when I got in there.’

The Agency for Global Media has roots tracing back to World War II with efforts to counter enemy propaganda.

Today, it provides U.S. taxpayer-funded news globally.

USAGM video: Our networks inform, engage and connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy because access to the truths a prerequisite for peace.

News groups funded by the U.S. Agency for Global Media include Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, and Radio Free Asia.

A Radio Free Asia series examined the democracy movement in Hong Kong.

But reports and audits have revealed massive scandals ranging from bias to waste, corruption, and national security threats.

Lake says about half the agency’s workforce was never properly vetted.

Lake: You have to realize, once you get in at this agency, you have access to get into any part of the government. And if we’re hiring people with sketchy backgrounds from countries that don’t like us, that are now all of a sudden have access to the government, and we intentionally didn’t do the background check that was required, that’s criminal really in my mind, especially knowing that many of them. As we started to reassess and look back at ‘Where are these people, where have they gone?’ there were 1500, I believe 500 of them were never able to track down and figure out where they went. Were they real people? Were they ghost employees? Were they spies who came in? And they were given fake social security numbers. And then, did they disappear somewhere into the federal government?

Sharyl: Who gave them the fake social security numbers?

Lake: The agency did. The agency did to bring them in.

Lake also takes issue with what she calls biased reporting.

Lake: Right when I got in, I saw a lot of very disturbing things about how things were being spent, past content that we put on. I mean, two days after President Trump got inaugurated, they put up a graphic with President Trump’s face and a swastika over it. I mean, I would’ve been appalled if they did that with Joe Biden.

Sharyl: Who were they broadcasting it to?

Lake: They were broadcasting it to our Spanish language audience. And I just said, ‘Oh my God, this is just so bad. What’s going on?’

Wasteful spending fuels more controversy.

Lake: I started to go through right away line item through our contracts, the tens of millions of dollars we were spending over the last few years on Reuters, AP, AFP Agence French Presse, and various other media outlets basically funding them to give us news so we could put it out. I thought we were a news agency. Why is a billion dollar American government news agency paying the AP Reuters AFP to tell us what the news is? Why are we keeping them in business? Isn’t that what we’re supposed to be doing? And so we canceled a lot of that.

Lake (June 25, 2025): Should we be putting $100,000 toward sponsoring an Afghan cricket team? Is that the best use of the money? Is that what we’re supposed to do with it? Or are we supposed to be telling America’s story abroad?

Sharyl: Did the agency have a $250 million Pennsylvania Avenue lease?

Lake: They did. Right before President Trump won his second term, in the fall before, they signed a quarter of a billion dollar 10 year lease on probably one of the swankiest buildings in Washington, D.C. just a few blocks down from the White House. That’s where actually where I showed up on my first day. And, I was floored. I don’t think I’ve been in a building that fancy. You walk in and there were these massive water falls, Italian Carrera marble and glass everywhere. I could barely stand to even sit in the building thinking that, you know, the overnight truck driver in Arizona, the farmer in Iowa, the school teacher in Michigan, you know, anybody, the secretary in in Nevada was footing the bill for that not to mention who got the big commission check on that. So one of the first things I did was cancel that lease.

As Lake has made cuts and transformations, her critics have gone on the attack.

Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) (June 25, 2025): The dysfunction lies in the administration’s allergy to truth and democracy, the two pillars that USAGM aims to promote abroad. So I’m not surprised by the choice to gut USAGM.

Rep. Madeleine Dean (D- PA) (June 25, 2025): For those of you that thought it was about reform, it’s not. It is about shutting down media. If you really wanted to reform it, if you really thought there were places to change and I am sure there are places to improve than you would have spent more than a few days and come to a more serious conclusion. That’s my worry about you in this position, you are just not serious about it. You are a propaganda machine for the Trump administration.

Rep. Gabe Amo (D-RI): (June 25, 2025) Under your leadership Ms. Lake USAGM has been shattered. At the direction of President Trump you cut programs, slashed funding, and try to counter, tried to shutter our global news network. Now journalists are at increased danger and reliable news is no longer accessible for millions around the world.

Lake says the criticism is expected. No word yet on whether her replacement will re-implement layoffs at the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which Lake says should be done, while saving any viable parts.

Lake: We reduced 85% of the agency through either early retirements, the fork in the road offer that was famously put forth by Elon Musk or just terminations. And frankly, I think we should take what works at the agency, I think Office of Cuba broadcasting, Radio Marti down in Miami, broadcasting into Cuba, they’re doing some really good work with a small operation of 33 people. We should roll that into the Department of State. We don’t need a separate agency to do our propaganda. It should come under State where we can make sure it’s in alignment with what our foreign policy is. And so we’re working through the legislature to make that happen. And we’ll see what they do.

Sharyl (on-camera): Since we conducted the interview with Kari Lake, Congress rejected President Trump’s call to shut down the agency. It enacted a much higher budget than the shutdown amount requested, 643 million tax dollars instead of 153 million.

Watch the video here.