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

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 Carla Hayden, the longtime librarian whom the White House fired last week amid criticism from some conservatives that she was advancing a “woke” agenda.ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW VIDEO
DOJ spokesman Chad Gilmartin also confirmed that Brian Nieves, a deputy chief of staff and senior counsel in Blanche’s office, was named acting assant librarian, and Paul Perkins, an associate deputy attorney general and veteran Justice Department attorney, is now the acting reger of copyrights and director of the Copyright Office.
He replaces Shira Perlmutter, whom the Trump adminration pushed out last weekend. Since returning to office in January, Trump has purged officials he regards as opposed to him and to his agenda.
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Hayden, nominated 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 the Library of Congress, which holds a vast archive of books and horical 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 AP obtained an internal memo sent Robert Randolph Newlen, who had been serving as acting librarian, saying that Congress was “engaged” with the White House about Blanche’s appointment and that the Library had not yet “received direction from Congress about how to move forward.”
Blanche was named the No. 2 Justice Department official after serving as Trump’s criminal defense attorney in two cases brought the DOJ during the Biden adminration. He is a former federal prosecutor who was a key figure on Trump’s defense team in his New York hush money trial, which ended in a conviction on 34 felony counts.Story continues below this ad
Hayden’s dismissal was widely condemned Democrats and many who worked with Hayden, the first Black person and the first woman to be named librarian of Congress. Ada Limon, who served three years as US poet laureate after Hayden chose her in 2022, said last week that “Dr. Carla Hayden is the kindest, brightest, most generous Librarian of Congress we could have hoped for as a nation.”