A federal judge in California has halted the Trump administration’s effort to dismantle the State Department’s Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (R-FIMI) Hub, formerly known as the Global Engagement Center (GEC).
In a June 13 order, US District Judge Susan Illston declared that the planned elimination of the unit, part of a broader push by the administration to downsize the federal government, violates an earlier injunction.
We obtained a copy of the order for you here.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio may have prematurely celebrated the end of R-FIMI back in April when he said the censorship unit was “dead.”
Despite his announcement, legal barriers remain in place, preserving the agency’s existence. For now.
Through the intervention of the federal judiciary, R-FIMI, a program with a $50 million annual budget that has drawn fire for suppressing online speech under the pretense of combating “foreign disinformation,” has been granted an unexpected lifeline.
The agency, a legacy of the Obama administration, was launched in 2016 to monitor and counter alleged foreign propaganda, particularly from Russia.
But over time, its activities expanded into domestic spheres, drawing allegations that it pressured social media platforms to silence certain political voices ahead of the 2020 election.
Judge Illston’s ruling came in response to growing concerns from federal employee unions over sweeping executive actions they argue circumvent congressional oversight. The case, American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO, et al. v. Donald J. Trump, challenges President Trump’s February Executive Order 14210, which called for widespread agency reorganizations and staff reductions across multiple departments, including State.
Illston previously issued a preliminary injunction on May 9 barring these cuts.
In Friday’s order, she directly addressed the State Department’s attempt to move forward with plans to shutter R-FIMI, stating, “actions to be taken pursuant to the State Department’s reorganization plans…are prohibited by the Court’s injunctive relief, as are all final separations scheduled in the State Department’s Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference program.”
She added a pointed directive: “If the State Department has any question about whether planned actions fall within the scope of the Court’s injunction, the Court ORDERS the Department to first raise those questions with the Court before taking action.”
Rubio’s attempt to sidestep the court’s prior ruling and sunset the R-FIMI unit has now been frozen, part of the ongoing legal tug-of-war over executive authority and the role of the judiciary in restraining or enabling bureaucratic overhaul.
For now, R-FIMI’s future remains entangled in litigation, and its controversial role in shaping public discourse continues unabated.
