
An inspector normal stated the the investigation of officers at U.S. Company for World Media carried out by a personal regulation agency for former CEO Michael Pack was a “waste or gross waste” of taxpayer cash. The regulation agency charged the company greater than $1.6 million. The officers beneath assessment by Pack, proven above at a celebration earlier this 12 months with Steve Forbes, have been later exonerated.
Patrick McMullan/PMC through Getty Photos
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Patrick McMullan/PMC through Getty Photos

An inspector normal stated the the investigation of officers at U.S. Company for World Media carried out by a personal regulation agency for former CEO Michael Pack was a “waste or gross waste” of taxpayer cash. The regulation agency charged the company greater than $1.6 million. The officers beneath assessment by Pack, proven above at a celebration earlier this 12 months with Steve Forbes, have been later exonerated.
Patrick McMullan/PMC through Getty Photos
Former President Donald Trump’s decide to supervise the guardian company of the Voice of America paid a prestigious non-public regulation agency so extravagantly to research his personal company’s senior govt officers that it constituted a “waste or gross waste of presidency assets,” a federal watchdog concluded Friday.
Michael Pack, the previous CEO of VOA-parent U.S. Company for World Media CEO, awarded the contract with none bidding course of to the politically related Richmond, Va., regulation agency McGuireWoods, which in the end obtained greater than $1.6 million in taxpayer cash.
Friday’s report from the U.S. State Division’s Inspector Common discovered the service the regulation agency offered “have been duplicative of current assets and concerned the cost of billable hours far in extra of the wage of federal workers who can carry out the identical work.” The inspector normal additionally discovered “critical violations of federal regulation and regulation” within the cost of a subcontractor with none authorization.
Neither Pack nor two representatives of McGuireWoods replied to efforts requesting touch upon the findings on Friday.
Pack’s preliminary nomination to the job by Trump languished for 2 years; shortly after displaying up at USAGM headquarters in early June 2020, he all however declared battle on his new colleagues. Pack instructed conservative media shops that, like Trump himself, he was there to “drain the swamp” at Voice of America and its sister networks.
In such appearances, Pack claimed, with out proof, that alternatives for espionage have been rife inside its networks. He launched into efforts to research and stamp out what he alleged was rampant anti-Trump bias in Voice of America’s protection.
The federal government-owned service seeks to supply unbiased information reporting for greater than 312 million individuals abroad each week throughout a number of platforms. His advisers ordered investigations of particular person reporters; he rejected the worker visa renewals of some overseas nationals, forcing them to scramble for brand new posts or to return dwelling, usually to regimes hostile to the U.S.
Pack’s criticisms span a interval that features the tenure of former USAGM CEO John Lansing, who’s now CEO at NPR. (Beneath NPR’s protocols, prime newsroom leaders can not assessment any of the community’s protection that touches on USAGM due to his prior place there.)
In the summertime of 2020, Pack moved swiftly to fireside most of his prime management staff, together with his chief monetary officer, his normal counsel, and his chief strategic officer, enraged that they blocked a few of his initiatives and warned others may show unlawful. Informed that it was additionally most likely unlawful to fireside them, Pack positioned seven on administrative depart and revoked the safety clearance of six of them. In August 2020, Pack commissioned McGuireWoods to conduct an inquiry into them.
A July 2021 assessment by the identical authorities watchdog exonerated the officers with the suspended clearances of any wrongdoing. As well as, it discovered that Pack had focused them for elevating purple flags over his actions. The inspector normal rebuked USAGM for failing to refer considerations about him to its workplace, which is charged with conducting such evaluations beneath federal regulation. Nevertheless it additionally stated the prices have been excessive and opposite to federal guidelines and laws.
One McGuire Woods legal professional charged the federal company $930 an hour for his work; That was about 12 occasions the fee that will have been incurred by counting on a authorities legal professional, the inspector normal’s workplace discovered. “USAGM paid for over 1,600 hours of McGuireWoods attorneys’ time who billed at a fee in extra of $500 per hour,” it said.
NPR obtained paperwork reflecting that McGuireWoods supposed to cost USAGM $2.1 million, however its precise billings in the end ebbed.
Pack had ties to the Richmond regulation agency. The conservative filmmaker had turn out to be near U.S. Justice Clarence Thomas and his spouse Ginni, interviewing the couple for a sympathetic documentary. John Adams, McGuireWoods’ lead associate on the USAGM contract, had served as Thomas’s regulation clerk on the Supreme Court docket.
McGuireWoods’ contract
Beginning in late 2020, NPR did a sequence of tales detailing McGuireWoods’ actions for USAGM, together with the regulation agency’s choice to shed a shopper that would have impeded its capacity to safe the profitable contract.
The Open Expertise Fund, a not-for-profit virtually wholly depending on USAGM for cash, had sought free recommendation from McGuireWoods legal professionals on authorized issues in spring 2020. In June 2020, Pack determined to take over the fund, to redirect all his company’s subsidies to it, and to fireside its leaders and board. He as an alternative wished to make use of the cash for anti-censorship software program tied to Falun Gong. Attorneys for the fund shared delicate supplies with McGuireWoods as they strategized with the companies’ legal professionals over a possible lawsuit to dam the strikes.
After reviewing the supplies and dragging their ft, senior companions at McGuireWoods cited considerations that the case could be too political, three individuals with information instructed NPR, and the agency dropped the expertise fund as a shopper. Pack granted McGuireWoods its contract simply weeks later.
In December 2020, Pack unveiled a plan to strip the Open Expertise Fund of federal {dollars} and ban it from receiving any authorities funds. In so doing, he relied on materials from McGuireWoods.
The inspector normal’s report didn’t handle that aspect. A grievance to the Virginia State Bar over McGuireWoods’ actions towards the Open Expertise Fund has not resulted in any motion in opposition to the agency, in line with a assessment of publicly accessible data.
Pack’s strikes drew condemnation internally and externally; the U.S. Congress handed laws to insulate Voice of America from political meddling and, in a single case, a federal choose known as Pack’s actions unconstitutional.
Pack resigned at President Biden’s request simply two hours after the brand new president took the oath of workplace in January 2021. The brand new management of USAGM embraced the inspector normal’s findings on Friday. And Biden’s nominee for the USAGM CEO place, former Voice of America director Amanda Bennett, nonetheless awaits a vote from the U.S. Senate.
Disclosure: This story was reported by NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik and edited by NPR chief enterprise editor Pallavi Gogoi. Due to NPR CEO John Lansing’s prior function as CEO of the U.S. Company for World Media, no senior information govt or company govt at NPR reviewed this story earlier than it was revealed.