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NEW: Fox News has learned that Radio Free Asia, which gets all of its funding from the U.S. government ($60 million + per year), quietly began auctioning off a huge amount of its taxpayer funded equipment during the government shutdown, some of it for pennies on the dollar. This includes RFA branded HD cameras & teleprompters for starting bids of less than $1. Even a newsroom refrigerator. Over 1,000 items are listed in the auction, which is open until early December.

The fire sale comes after RFA announced in late October that they were pausing operations as a result of the government shutdown and Trump administration cuts to their budget this year. In a statement before Halloween, RFA said “when our funding comes back, so will we”.

I had several phone calls with RFA officials to ask about the public sale of their taxpayer funded material. They told me it was necessary to stay alive as an organization and have cash on hand in the wake of budget cuts and what they allege have been gaps in funding.

In a statement, RFA tells FOX:

“The Administration’s unlawful termination and disruption of RFA’s timely funding, followed by an extended government shutdown, has forced the company to drastically reduce operational costs so as to set up for long-term success. Shedding equipment we can no longer use, while retaining key personnel and assets, responsibly positions RFA to continue editorial operations that hold the Chinese Communist Party and other authoritarian governments to account. Our plan going forward is to build back once Congress and the Administration resolve our funding issues.”

Congressman Darrell Issa has been involved in negotiations to find a way forward for RFA, but tells us he was outraged when he found out about the auction, calling it a “betrayal to American taxpayers”.

“I’ve never seen such belligerence by an organization that gets a hundred percent of its money from the US government,” Issa said. It is clear they're liquidating current assets out of spite.”

RFA also alleged to us that the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), hasn’t funded them on time. I asked USAGM’s chief deputy, Kari Lake, to respond.

“What they said is not true,” Lake said. “We've given them every single penny that was appropriated to them. I mean really, 80 cents for an HD camera? This is a slap in the face to the hardworking farmer in Iowa, the trucker in Arizona, the construction worker in Michigan, who's working their butts off to pay taxes to fund Radio Free Asia, there’s nothing “free” about it.”

RFA says they plan to restart their news operation once their funding returns. I asked how they plan do do that, given they are liquidating so much equipment?

They assured me they will have enough leftover gear to do their jobs again, in a more streamlined way - if their funding comes back.

ARTICLE: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/us-backed-foreign-broadcaster-selling-pricy-news-gear-pennies-dollar-spite-taxpayers