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

NEW YORK — Deputy Atty. Gen. 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 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The Copyright Office is overseen by the Library of Congress, which holds a vast archive of books and historical documents.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 advisor Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

Unauthorized information sharing “could compromise legislative branch independence and the ability of Members of Congress to carry out their constitutional duties,” wrote Democrats including New York Rep. Joseph Morelle and Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrats on the House Administration and Appropriations committees. They are asking for an inspector general investigation.

The Associated Press obtained an internal memo sent by 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 by the department during President Biden’s administration. 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.

Hayden’s dismissal was widely condemned by Democrats and by many who worked with her. She is the first Black person and the first woman to be named librarian of Congress. Ada Limon, who served three years as U.S. 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.”

The creators and cast of the Tony-nominated musical “Dead Outlaw” canceled a planned visit to the library and issued a statement praising Hayden as “a fierce advocate for preserving America’s cultural memory and a great champion of the Broadway community.”

Italie writes for the Associated Press. AP writers Seung Min Kim, Alanna Durkin Richer and Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.