A pair of unexpected visitors claiming to be newly appointed Trump administration officials caused confusion at the U.S. Copyright Office this week. The incident follows a wave of sudden leadership changes and a controversial government report on artificial intelligence and copyright that may be at the heart of the upheaval.
On Monday, two men arrived at the Copyright Office’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., asserting that they had been tapped by the White House for senior roles within the agency. The men, identifying themselves as Brian Nieves and Paul Perkins, showed security documents that they said confirmed their appointments. Nieves claimed he was now deputy librarian, while Perkins introduced himself as the acting director and register of copyrights.
But they never made it past the front doors.
Though Capitol Police reportedly were called in, a spokesperson denied that officers had to escort anyone out or explicitly block entry. Still, the attempted entrance — especially amid so many unanswered questions — has left officials and staff members on edge.
Adding to the confusion, the men’s claimed identities match the names of two current Department of Justice employees. According to LinkedIn, Nieves serves as a deputy chief of staff in the Office of the Deputy Attorney General, while Perkins is listed as an associate deputy attorney general. Whether they were genuinely reassigned or simply misrepresenting their roles remains unverified. Neither the White House nor the Department of Justice has confirmed the legitimacy of the appointments or provided further comment.
Leadership Overhaul Raises Red Flags
The failed attempt to assume control of the Copyright Office comes on the heels of two high-profile firings. Shira Perlmutter, who led the Copyright Office since 2020, was removed from her post on Saturday. Just a day earlier, her agency had released a draft report addressing the legality of using copyrighted materials to train artificial intelligence systems.
Only days before Perlmutter’s removal, the Trump administration also dismissed Carla Hayden, the Librarian of Congress. Hayden had held the post for nearly a decade and was both the first woman and first Black person to serve in the role. A document reportedly presented by the two would-be appointees stated that Todd Blanche, a former defense attorney for Donald Trump and current deputy attorney general, would take over as acting Librarian of Congress. That appointment was later confirmed by the Department of Justice.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt explained Hayden’s dismissal as being tied to “concerning actions she took in her pursuit of diversity, equity, and inclusion” at the Library of Congress — though she didn’t elaborate further.
Backlash Over AI Report and Political Interference
While the Trump administration has offered no official explanation for Perlmutter’s firing, many believe it was directly linked to her agency’s recent publication of a 108-page “pre-publication” report. The document, which was not yet finalized, explored the controversial topic of whether AI developers can legally use copyrighted works to train their systems under the doctrine of fair use.
Representative Joe Morelle, the top Democrat on the House committee overseeing the Library of Congress, condemned Perlmutter’s removal as “a brazen, unprecedented power grab with no legal basis.” He pointed to the timing — just hours after the report’s release — and suggested the firing may have been an attempt to clear the way for favorable policies toward powerful tech figures such as Elon Musk.
The report itself held nuanced conclusions. It acknowledged that fair use might justify some training scenarios, but warned that “making commercial use of vast troves of copyrighted works to produce expressive content that competes with them… goes beyond established fair use boundaries.” This statement is especially significant in light of the dozens of lawsuits currently unfolding between AI companies and copyright holders.
Tech, Law, and Politics Collide
Among the most high-profile of these legal battles is the lawsuit brought by The New York Times against OpenAI. The Times argues that the company used its articles without permission to train ChatGPT and other tools, amounting to copyright infringement. Spokesperson Charlie Stadtlander echoed concerns raised in the Copyright Office’s report, stating that generating competing content using protected works “is not fair use.”
The Trump administration’s recent actions — from reshuffling leadership to deploying officials with unclear credentials — have raised alarms about political meddling in traditionally independent government agencies. The Copyright Office, housed within the Library of Congress, plays a critical role in interpreting and enforcing copyright law. Its decisions now have major implications for one of the most heated legal issues of the digital age: how to regulate the data used to power artificial intelligence.
