May 12 (Reuters) - The Trump administration fired the

top U.S. copyright official in an email from the White House on

Saturday, a U.S. Copyright Office spokesperson confirmed.

The firing of Copyright Office director Shira Perlmutter

follows President Donald Trump's termination of U.S. Librarian

of Congress Carla Hayden on Friday. The Copyright Office is a

department of the Library of Congress.

Spokespeople for the White House did not immediately respond

to a request for comment on Perlmutter's firing on Monday.

Democratic U.S. Senators Adam Schiff of California and Chuck

Schumer of New York called Perlmutter's firing unlawful in a

joint statement and said that Congress "purposefully insulated

this role and the U.S. Copyright Office from politics."

The Copyright Office under Perlmutter released a report late

on May 9 advising that technology companies' use of vast amounts

of copyrighted works to train artificial intelligence systems

which "produce expressive content that competes with them in

existing markets" may not be protected by U.S. copyright law.

Tech companies including OpenAI and Meta Platforms ( META ) have told

the office that being forced to pay copyright holders for their

content could cripple the burgeoning U.S. AI industry.

Democratic U.S. Representative Joe Morelle of New York said

in a statement that it was "surely no coincidence" that

Perlmutter was fired "less than a day after she refused to

rubber-stamp Elon Musk's efforts to mine troves of copyrighted

works to train AI models."

Musk, whose Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has

reportedly used AI in its efforts to reduce the size of the

federal government, also owns artificial intelligence company

xAI.

Musk and spokespeople for DOGE and xAI did not immediately

respond to requests for comment on Perlmutter's firing.

(Reporting by Blake Brittain in Washington)