By Jan Wolfe
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Donald Trump’s administration filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against three board members of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting who have not left their posts despite Trump’s attempt to fire them.
In a complaint filed in federal court in Washington D.C., the U.S. Justice Department said Trump lawfully fired the three board members — Laura Ross, Diane Kaplan and Tom Rothman — and requested a court order ousting them.
The lawsuit is the latest twist in a larger fight between the CPB, which spends more than $500 million annually on organizations like the Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio, and the Trump administration.
The White House and many Republicans have argued that the government should not provide funding to support programming that they consider too liberal.
The CPB did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment from the organization and from the board members.
Created by the U.S. Congress in 1967, the CPB provides financial support for PBS, NPR, and more than 1,500 locally managed public radio and TV stations.
A Trump executive order from May aimed to slash public subsidies to PBS and NPR, which have called the move blatantly unlawful.
The CPB’s directors are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate for six-year terms. The five current members of the board were all nominated by former President Joe Biden.
White House Deputy Director of Presidential Personnel Trent Morse sent emails to Rothman, Ross, and Kaplan in April saying they had been terminated from their posts.
The CPB responded by filing its own lawsuit, saying that “because the president has no authority over the CPB, he has no authority to terminate its board members as he has purported to do here.”
U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss, who is hearing that case, ruled last month that the three board members can keep their seats, even as he denied the CPB an injunction blocking Trump from removing them.
(Reporting by Jan Wolfe; Editing by Leigh Jones and Sandra Maler)
