Trump replaces longtime Librarian of Congress with top justice department official
President Donald Trump has tapped Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche as 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 some conservatives that she was advancing a “woke” agenda. She was nominated by Democratic President Barack Obama in 2015.
Blanche was named the number two Justice Department official after serving as a criminal defense attorney defending Trump against two cases brought by the Justice Department during the Biden administration. Blanche 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.
The Office of the Deputy Attorney General did not immediately respond for requests to comment.
Hayden, who was the first woman and first African American to be the librarian of Congress, received an email late Thursday from the White House’s Presidential Personnel Office, according to an email obtained by The Associated Press. The Library of Congress did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
"Carla," the email began, "On behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position as the Librarian of Congress is terminated effective immediately. Thank you for your service.”
Hayden started her career at the Chicago Public Library in 1973 and later became the deputy commissioner and chief librarian of the Chicago Public Library from 1991 to 1993.
She had faced backlash from a conservative advocacy group, American Accountability Foundation, claiming she was advancing a "woke" agenda by promoting children’s books with “radical” content and other books authored by Trump opponents.
One of Hayden's priorities for the Library of Congress was to make engagement with the library more accessible. In 2021, Hayden launched the Of the People initiative, which created new opportunities especially for communities of color underrepresented in the Library’s collections, to be able to engage with and add their perspectives to the library's collection.
Several Democrats, previous Librarians of Congress as well as U.S. poet laureate Ada Limón are condemning the firing of Hayden.
"I don’t have a lot of words to address the fact that she was 'terminated effective immediately' today by the current administration, except that they continue to make moves to destroy all that we hold dear, including libraries, national parks, and funding for education and the arts," Limón said in a statement.
According to information obtained by the Associated Press, two people in Blanche's office were named to Library of Congress positions. Brian Nieves, a deputy chief of staff and senior counsel, was named acting assistant librarian, 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.
Contributing: Shannon Tyler