Staff members at the Library of Congress denied access on Monday to two Justice Department officials who had been tapped for top positions there as part of a shake-up initiated by President Trump, according to two people familiar with the situation. The lockout led to a brief standoff on Capitol Hill.
The episode at the library, an agency of the legislative branch, became the latest tension point in a battle over where Congress’s authority ends and the White House’s begins. The people who described it did so on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment.
It unfolded after Mr. Trump on Monday named Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, who was the lead defense lawyer in his criminal trial in Manhattan last year, to be librarian of Congress, succeeding Carla Hayden, whom Mr. Trump abruptly fired last week. The post is a presidential appointment, subject to confirmation by the Senate.
Around 9 a.m., two Justice Department officials arrived at the library’s headquarters across from the Capitol and sought access to the U.S. Copyright Office, which is housed there. They brought a letter from the White House declaring that Mr. Blanche was the acting librarian and that the two men would be serving in top roles at the agency.
Paul Perkins, an associate deputy attorney general, would serve as acting register of copyrights and director of the Copyright Office, the letter said, and Brian Nieves, a deputy chief of staff and senior policy counsel, would be the acting deputy librarian. Mr. Trump fired the previous director of the Copyright Office, Shira Perlmutter, over the weekend, one of the people said.
Staff members at the library called the U.S. Capitol Police as well as their general counsel, Meg Williams, who told the men they were not allowed access to the Copyright Office and asked them to leave, one of the people said.
Mr. Perkins and Mr. Nieves then left the building willingly, accompanied to the door by Ms. Williams. The library’s staff is recognizing Robert Newlen, the principal deputy librarian who was Ms. Hayden’s No. 2, as acting librarian until they get direction from Congress, one of the people familiar with the situation said.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Capitol Police said that officers “did not escort anyone out” and that Library of Congress personnel did not ask them to “turn anyone away.”
Representative Joe Morelle of New York, the top Democrat on the Committee on House Administration and a member of the Joint Committee on the Library, said the move to fire Ms. Perlmutter and Ms. Hayden amounted to a power grab by the executive branch and criticized Republicans for not speaking out against the overreach.
“This action once again tramples on Congress’s Article One authority and throws a trillion-dollar industry into chaos,” Mr. Morelle said in a statement after Ms. Perlmutter was fired from the Copyright Office, referring to Article One of the Constitution, which describes the powers of Congress. “When will my Republican colleagues decide enough is enough?”
Mr. Morelle led five other House Democrats in calling for an investigation into whether the library had given the Department of Government Efficiency or other executive branch agencies unauthorized access to congressional or library data.
Devlin Barrett, Tim Balk and Jennifer Schuessler contributed reporting.
