As Kari Lake Sought to Shutter Voice of America, Parent Agency Rebuffed Auditors

A new report says the lack of information provided for a required annual examination was so “pervasive” that auditors declined to opine on the agency’s financial numbers.

The federal media agency that oversees Voice of America, and whose Trump-appointed leadership has been deemed illegal by a judge, failed to cooperate with a required annual audit of its finances, according to a newly released report.

The U.S. Agency for Global Media had consecutively received clean audit reports for 20 years until 2024. But then Kari Lake was named by President Trump to take the helm, vowing to shut down federally funded newsrooms that she accused of being anti-American and “rotten.”

The audit report by an independent accounting firm dated Feb. 27 said the agency failed to provide information required for a proper examination for 2025. The report says the omission of documents was so “material and pervasive” that the firm, Kearney and Company, declined to express an opinion on the agency’s financial numbers. In accounting, such audit reports, called disclaimed opinions, often signal that the management has imposed limits on auditors’ work.