Donald Trump's administration is attempting a hostile takeover of the Library of Congress, a body part of the legislative branch that serves as its research unit in addition to maintaining the world's largest books, manuscripts, maps, photographs and recordings.
While the acquisition was conducted as part of Trump’s broader diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) content, it is the latest effort by the president and his team to cover Congressional roles and ensure that the work cannot be done.
Experts from the Library of Congress told Rolling stones Trump's attempt to take over is "dangerous" given the library's sub-institutions provide confidential legal advice to members of Congress and help lawmakers with police misconduct.
Experts say the Trump administration is actively trying to place a landing team in the Library of Congress, noting that when Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Administration Efficiency (DOGE) does this elsewhere, the first thing the team does is wander and gain control of as much sensitive data as possible.
Last week, the Trump administration tried to fire Librarian Carla Hayden, a Librarian of the Librarian before the end of his ten-year term - Trump moved to Todd Blanche on Monday as interim director of the Library of Congress. Blanche, currently serving as U.S. Attorney General, is known for representing Trump at the Hush Money trial in New York, with the president convicted on all charges.
Blanche’s appointment has not been recognized yet, wrote on Monday. “Congress is engaged to the White House and we have not received any instructions from Congress on how to move forward,” Nuren wrote in an internal email. politics.
Last weekend, the government also deleted U.S. Copyright Chief Shira Perlmutter clarified a few days after the agency released the report that tech companies' efforts to train AI models for data scraped from public websites could be enacted outside of U.S. copyright law and the intellectual property rights of data original creators.
Controversially, the legitimacy (if any) of Trump's continued snatch at the Library of Congress is controversial. According to two sources familiar with the matter, even before sending internal information, library staff was told by superiors Monday morning to avoid realizing Trump’s new draft pick at this time, describing the robbery as possible illegal.
Experts at the Library of Congress say Pelmott's firing could be illegal, and more importantly, Trump "can't name the acting library director of Congress because it's not an executive branch."
“Inside the Library of Congress, they are all congressional staff, who are protected by speech or debate clauses in the Constitution,” the experts added. Rolling stones Agree not to name.
Additionally, they noted that the Agency for the Congressional Research Services (CRS), an institution within the Library of Congress, “provides confidential advice to Congress, including confidential legal advice, and has a database of all the questions each member has asked for over the past 50 years and cannot provide answers.”
According to experts, this effort stands out even in Trump's widespread takeover of federal agencies and all of its sensitive data and systems, as it presents significant risks to Congress.
“This is accessing its information in the Inviolate Congressional space,” the expert said. “We know that when Trump and the people at the threshold go elsewhere, the first thing they deleted the data. How can Congressmen seek legal advice or other advice from the CRS when the administration can hold onto their hands — or can they guide the answer?”
Other sensitive systems may be at risk of invasion by Trump officials. While repeating the good patterns faced by other agencies and offices, the U.S. copyright on Monday denied two people claiming to be Trump’s new appointments. Sources told wired Paul Perkins and Brian Nieves, who appear to work in the Justice Department, told the Copyright Office staff that they are the new acting director and deputy librarians of the Copyright Office, respectively.
The sudden dismissal of Haydn and Permott puts the library of Congress staff on the edge. Trump will install political appointments and replacements for librarians after White House officials communicated to library high school, two people saying it was uneasy. One of these sources describes the employee's mood Rolling stones Given Trump's attempt to clear and cultural acquisitions of different American nonpartisan institutions, such as the Kennedy Center, it's "highly alert" and some of them expect the worst.
Since the first day of the second administration, the president has no secret that he is seeking top-down restrictions and restoration of the federal government, in large part to get rid of anyone he believes is an anti-Trump disruptor. Trump's dismissal of the librarian was so sudden that the move caught several of his Republican allies off guard on Capitol Hill, according to two sources. They learned about the media and shooting elsewhere.
Another source familiar with this situation, another person told it Rolling stones For weeks, Trump and other senior administration officials have been trying to examine and possibly ideologically reshape the library’s vast catalogue and overhaul the types of events it has published over the years.
Last week, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed that Hayden was fired because “there was a lot about what she did at the Library of Congress to pursue dei and put inappropriate books in the library for the children’s library.”
The library does not actually lend books and materials, and in fact, the government's efforts to seize control of institutions have nothing to do with the crusade against material related to diversity.
Trump and his lieutenant made the decision to, among other factors, close past events with the president's allies, in which the library hosted several authors and historians who Maga believed to be anti-Trump. This disturbed the president and further inspired his desire to begin reshaping the Library of Congress in his own image.
"This is a major part of the legislative branch," the experts said. Rolling stones, “There is no reason they will stop there. ”