Trump fires US Copyright Office chief Perlmutter, Politico says

Shamim Adam, Bloomberg News on May 10, 2025

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President Donald Trump fired the top official at the U.S. Copyright Office on Saturday, Politico reported.

The termination of Shira Perlmutter on Saturday came two days after Trump fired the head of the Library of Congress, which has oversight of the copyright office, the report said. The White House did not respond to Politico’s request for comment on Perlmutter’s firing.

Congressional Democrats assailed Trump’s moves on Perlmutter as well as Carla Hayden, the Librarian of Congress.

Trump’s firing of Perlmutter “is a brazen, unprecedented power grab with no legal basis,” said Rep. Joe Morelle of New York, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, which oversees federal elections. “Her tenure has propelled the Copyright Office into the 21st century by comprehensively modernizing its operations and setting global standards on the intersection of AI and intellectual property.”

Perlmutter was appointed to her role in October 2020, according to the U.S. Copyright Office website. Her job included advising Congress and executive branch agencies on copyright policy, and directing the administration of important provisions of the U.S. Copyright Act.

(Erik Wasson contributed to this report.)