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WEKU
David Folkenflik

Trump's VOA chief paid 'extravagantly' to investigate critics: Watchdog

Michael Pack USAGM VoA NPR Voice of America Donald Trump Clarence Thomas Joe Biden John Lansing Steve Forbes
An inspector general said the the investigation of officials at U.S. Agency for Global Media conducted by a private law firm for former CEO Michael Pack was a "waste or gross waste" of taxpayer money. The law firm charged the agency more than $1.6 million. The officials under review by Pack, shown above at a party earlier this year with Steve Forbes, were later exonerated. (Patrick McMullan/PMC via Getty Images)

Former President Donald Trump's pick to oversee the parent agency of the Voice of America paid a prestigious private law firm so extravagantly to investigate his own agency's senior executive officials that it constituted a "waste or gross waste of government resources," a federal watchdog concluded Friday.

Michael Pack, the former CEO of VOA-parent U.S. Agency for Global Media CEO, awarded the contract without any bidding process to the politically connected Richmond, Va., law firm McGuireWoods, which ultimately received more than $1.6 million in taxpayer money.

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