Deputy attorney general who defended Trump in hush money trial is named acting librarian of Congress

NEW YORK (AP) — Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who represented Donald Trump during his 2024 criminal trial, has been appointed acting librarian of Congress, the Justice Department said Monday. Blanche replaces longtime librarian Carla Hayden, whom the White House fired last week amid criticism from conservatives that she was advancing a “woke” agenda.

Brian Nieves, a deputy chief of staff and senior counsel in Blanche’s office, was named acting assistant librarian, Justice Department spokesman Chad Gilmartin confirmed. And Paul Perkins, an associate deputy attorney general and veteran Justice Department attorney, is now the acting register of copyrights and director of the Copyright Office, replacing Shira Perlmutter, whom the Trump administration pushed out last weekend.

Since returning to office in January, Trump has purged officials he regards as opposed to him and to his Republican agenda. Hayden, nominated by President Barack Obama in 2015 and confirmed on a 74-18 Senate vote the following year, named Perlmutter as head of the Copyright Office in 2020.

The Copyright Office is overseen by the Library of Congress, which holds a vast archive of books and historical documents. Perlmutter’s office recently released a report examining whether artificial intelligence companies can use copyrighted materials to train their AI systems and then compete in the same market as the human-made works they were trained on.

The implications of Trump installing a close ally as librarian of Congress could be far-reaching. For instance, the librarian could see requests made by lawmakers to the Congressional Research Service, according to a congressional aide who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity. The nonpartisan agency is largely known as the think tank of Capitol Hill and provides analyses meant to help lawmakers in the legislative process.

Senior House Democrats on Monday raised the prospect that data held by the Library of Congress could have been improperly transferred to the executive branch, including officials at Trump adviser Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.