The Trump administration has removed yet another senior official from the federal government, abruptly dismissing the nation’s top copyright regulator only days after firing the Librarian of Congress. The move marks the latest step in a broader reshuffling of leadership across agencies viewed as insufficiently aligned with the president’s policy agenda.

Shira Perlmutter, who served as the Register of Copyrights and Director of the U.S. Copyright Office, was informed of her termination through a brief email sent directly from the White House. The Copyright Office confirmed that Perlmutter received a message stating, “Your position as the Register of Copyrights and Director at the U.S. Copyright Office is terminated, effective immediately.”

Her dismissal followed the administration’s decision, made just days earlier, to remove Carla Hayden from her role as Librarian of Congress. Hayden, appointed during the Obama administration, had overseen the Library since 2016 and had selected Perlmutter to lead the Copyright Office in 2020. Both women were informed of their removal through formal correspondence delivered electronically, according to reporting from The Associated Press.

The letter addressed to Hayden began succinctly: “Carla, on 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.” Their departures are widely viewed as part of an administrative restructuring effort aimed at placing new leadership in influential cultural and intellectual institutions.

While the reshuffling at the Library of Congress captured national attention, federal prosecutors also announced separate charges involving a former employee at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). According to court documents filed in Washington, D.C., Senior Procurement Contract Specialist Yusuf Akoll allegedly created a fake company to steal federal coronavirus relief funds during the height of the pandemic.

Prosecutors say Akoll formed a Virginia-registered business called Naagode Consulting LLC in November 2020. Despite the company not yet existing at the start of the pandemic, he applied for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans, claiming the business had been operating as early as January 2020 in order to meet program eligibility requirements. He also falsely asserted that Naagode generated $40,000 in revenue in 2019—a claim impossible to verify because the company had never earned any income.

Using these fabricated details, Akoll secured two PPP loans totaling roughly $16,666 between March and August 2021. Prosecutors charged him through an “information” filing, a procedural step often signaling that the defendant intends to negotiate a plea.

The case spotlights persistent concerns about oversight failures during the federal government’s massive pandemic relief effort. The Small Business Administration (SBA), responsible for approving PPP loans, did not check Naagode Consulting’s formation date—publicly available through state corporation records—nor did it cross-reference the company’s claimed earnings with tax filings. These lapses made it possible for fraudulent claims to pass through the system with little resistance.

The ease with which Akoll secured the funds illustrates the risks built into the government’s “pay-and-chase” model, under which relief money was deliberately disbursed quickly, with the expectation that fraudulent claims would be addressed later. Billions of dollars in questionable loans were issued under this approach, and although some efforts were made to recover the funds, many officials have criticized the overall lack of accountability.

USAID itself was dissolved as an independent agency and absorbed into the State Department amid escalating concerns about financial mismanagement. Internal assessments highlighted widespread difficulties in tracking how funds were used overseas, including the money overseen by officials like Akoll.

The Biden administration faced criticism for its handling of PPP fraud as well, especially after announcing in 2023 that it would stop pursuing repayment of loans under $100,000. Although many PPP loans were designed to be forgiven, those who failed to meet forgiveness criteria were still technically responsible for repayment. The administration cited equity concerns as justification for halting recovery efforts, but the decision left billions unrecovered.

As for the shake-ups at the Library of Congress, the administration has not publicly detailed the motivations behind the dismissals beyond asserting its authority to replace key federal personnel. However, the simultaneous removal of both the Librarian of Congress and the Register of Copyrights suggests a desire to redirect the agencies’ leadership and priorities.

The twin developments—a sweeping leadership change in one of the nation’s oldest cultural institutions and a fraud case exposing vulnerabilities in federal relief programs—underscore the extent to which political, administrative, and financial oversight issues continue to converge across the federal government.