{"id":25539,"date":"2025-12-01T04:55:04","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T04:55:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/?p=25539"},"modified":"2025-12-01T04:55:04","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T04:55:04","slug":"trump-fires-top-copyright-official-after-dismissing-library-of-congress-director-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/?p=25539","title":{"rendered":"Trump Fires Top Copyright Official After Dismissing Library Of Congress Director"},"content":{"rendered":"

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President Donald Trump\u2019s administration dismissed the nation\u2019s top copyright official just days after removing the Librarian of Congress.<\/p>\n

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Shira Perlmutter, who led the U.S. Copyright Office\u2014an agency under the Library of Congress\u2014was abruptly terminated.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Copyright Office informed the outlet that Perlmutter had received an email from the White House, which stated, \u201cYour position as the Register of Copyrights and Director at the U.S. Copyright Office is terminated, effective immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Days prior, Trump dismissed Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden. Her removal was considered part of the administration\u2019s broader effort to replace officials viewed as resistant to Trump\u2019s agenda.<\/p>\n

Hayden appointed Shira Perlmutter to head the Copyright Office in October 2020. According to The Associated Press, both Hayden and Perlmutter were informed of their dismissals via email.<\/p>\n

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\u201cCarla,\u201d the letter to Hayden began. \u201cOn 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,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, a USAID employee responsible for overseeing agency contracts created a fictitious company to obtain coronavirus relief funds for personal gain illegally, federal prosecutors announced Friday.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYusuf Akoll worked as a Senior Procurement Contract Specialist at the U.S. Agency for International Development,\u201d according to a previously unreported court document. \u201cFrom at least in or around March 2021, and continuing through at least in or around August 2021, Akoll [made] materially false, fictitious, and fraudulent statements\u2026that resulted in Akoll receiving two [Paycheck Protection Program] loans totaling approximately $16,666 that he was not entitled to receive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prosecutors allege that in November 2020, Akoll registered a company in Virginia named Naagode Consulting LLC and then applied for a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan under the federal COVID-19 relief program. He claimed to be employed by Naagode and stated the funds were needed to avoid layoffs.<\/p>\n

However, eligibility for the program required businesses to be operational as of February 2020, prompting Akoll to falsely list the company\u2019s start date as January 2020. To justify the loan, he also claimed the company earned $40,000 in 2019, despite it having no income at all, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n

Akoll was charged with making false statements in Washington, D.C., federal court through an \u201cinformation,\u201d a filing that typically indicates a plea agreement is in the works, the Daily Wire reported.<\/p>\n

The fact that the loan was approved underscores how recklessly the government distributed vast sums of money during the coronavirus pandemic. Akoll\u2019s claim that the company earned $40,000 in 2019 directly contradicted his own assertion that it wasn\u2019t founded until January 2020.<\/p>\n

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Small Business Administration officials failed to verify the company\u2019s formation date\u2014easily accessible through state corporation records\u2014or cross-check the claimed income against federal tax filings, revealing a lack of basic due diligence. It also highlights the kind of oversight gaps the Department of Government Efficiency has focused on addressing as a core part of its mission.<\/p>\n

USAID was shut down, and its remaining functions were absorbed into the State Department amid concerns from Republicans and the Department of Government Efficiency over widespread financial mismanagement. According to records, Akoll had oversight of hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding directed to foreign countries, money that was often difficult to track and monitor effectively.<\/p>\n

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Coronavirus relief payments were distributed under a \u201cpay and chase\u201d model, in which the government prioritized rapid disbursement with the expectation that fraudulent claims would be pursued later. However, the Biden administration largely abandoned efforts to recover those funds.<\/p>\n

In 2023, the Biden administration announced it would not attempt to collect loans under $100,000 that were technically required to be repaid, citing \u201cequity\u201d concerns. While most loans were designed to be forgiven, recipients who failed to meet forgiveness criteria were still obligated to repay them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump\u2019s administration dismissed the nation\u2019s top copyright official just days after removing the Librarian of Congress. Advertisement Shira Perlmutter, who led the U.S. Copyright Office\u2014an agency under the … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25537,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25539"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25540,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25539\/revisions\/25540"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}