By the close of business Wednesday, Trump administration official Kari Lake must explain to a federal judge how she intends to ensure that Voice of America fulfills its congressional mandate to serve as a consistently reliable and authoritative source of news overseas despite forcing out nearly the entire workforce.

Lake has said she’s just doing her job by fulfilling President Trump’s wishes.

A key question remains: What is Lake’s actual job?

While she has gone by a series of shifting titles involving the designation “senior adviser,” an official agency record recently called Lake the “Acting Chief Executive Officer” of Voice of America’s federal parent, the U.S. Agency for Global Media.

That is a presidentially appointed position. NPR can find no public evidence that Trump has ever named Lake to it. And under U.S. law, it does not appear that she is eligible to hold the job, according to former federal officials.