Washington Post: In rare move, Congress pushes back on Trump over Library of Congress

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Congress refuses to accept the appointment of King Donald’s stooge as the head of their library:

In a rare bipartisan effort to defend its institutional authority, Congress is quietly resisting President Donald Trump’s attempt to assert control over the Library of Congress — a move that experts say threatens the separation of powers and the integrity of the legislative branch’s premier research body.

Pushing back on Trump’s designation of Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche as acting librarian, lawmakers said Tuesday that control of the institution remains with its top career official, Robert R. Newlen. Newlen told staff at the library that he is the acting head, according to an email obtained by The Washington Post.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/05/13/trump-library-of-congress-power-struggle

Raw Story: ‘Wholesale overthrow’: Expert furious as Trump lawyer replaces ‘American hero’ librarian

The Trump administration announced Monday that it was replacing longtime Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden — fired last week for promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion programs — with Donald Trump’s former criminal defense lawyer, Todd Blanche.

Blanche is currently second-in-command at the Department of Justice, and will also serve as acting Librarian of Congress, according to Politico.

He famously defended Trump in his 2023 “hush money” case in which the then-former president was convicted on 34 felony counts.

A loser of a lawyer taking over the Library of Congress?

https://www.rawstory.com/library-of-congress-2671937161

New York Times: Trump Installs Top Justice Dept. Official at Library of Congress, Prompting a Standoff

The president named Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, as the acting librarian. But staff members refused access to two department officials he chose for key roles at Congress’s main research arm.

President Trump on Monday named the No. 2 official at the Justice Department and his former personal lawyer to serve as the acting librarian of Congress, initiating a shake-up at the main research library of the legislative branch that prompted an instant revolt among the staff.

Mr. Trump named Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general who was his lead defense lawyer in his criminal trial in Manhattan last year, to take over from Carla Hayden, the librarian of Congress whom the president abruptly fired late last week.

But staff members at the Library of Congress pushed back, insisting that Congress must have input and refusing to give two other top Justice Department officials whom Mr. Blanche chose for senior positions there access to the agency’s headquarters on Capitol Hill, according to two people familiar with the situation.

The lockout led to a brief standoff across from the Capitol and became the latest flashpoint in a battle over where Congress’s authority ends and the White House’s begins.

Associated Press: Trump administration fires top copyright official days after firing Librarian of Congress

The Trump administration has fired the nation’s top copyright official, Shira Perlmutter, days after abruptly terminating the head of the Library of Congress, which oversees the U.S. Copyright Office.

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 report, the third part of a lengthy AI study, follows a review that Perlmutter began in 2023 with opinions from thousands of people including AI developers, actors and country singers.

In January, the office clarified its approach as one based on the “centrality of human creativity” in authoring a work that warrants copyright protections. The office receives about half a million copyright applications per year covering millions of creative works.

“Where that creativity is expressed through the use of AI systems, it continues to enjoy protection,” Perlmutter said in January. “Extending protection to material whose expressive elements are determined by a machine … would undermine rather than further the constitutional goals of copyright.”

https://apnews.com/article/copyright-director-firing-government-trump-7ab99992a96131bce7de853b66feec68