According to two unidentified people who are familiar with the plans, William Paul, the Internal Revenue Service’s acting Chief Counsel, has been replaced. Andrew De Mello is an attorney at the chief counsel’s offices who supports Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
People claim that Paul was demoted because of his disagreement with the DOGE, which allegedly wanted to share tax data with multiple agencies. This news comes at a time when the IRS is planning to make massive cuts to its staff.
According to the Wall Street Journal, workers linked to DOGE examined how they could use IRS tax data. They noted that this information could be used for checking if a person qualifies for federal benefit and immigration enforcement.
As part of President Trump’s effort to shrink the federal workforce, the IRS is developing plans to reduce its workforce by up to half using a combination of layoffs and attrition as well as incentivized purchaseouts. To reduce government staff, the administration is closing down agencies and laying off almost all probationary employees that haven’t yet been granted civil service protection. It also offers buyouts for nearly all federal employees via a “deferred resigning program”.
In February, the IRS laid off 7,000 probationary employees who had served for less than a year.
The mass layoffs of probationary employees are now in question after a federal court in California ruled on Thursday that the terminations of these workers by the Office of Personnel Management was unlawful. He ordered to reinstate for six federal agencies. U.S. district judge William Alsup made the decision in San Francisco after a group unions filed a lawsuit against the Trump Administration.
Paul was appointed acting chief counsel for the IRS in January. He replaced Marjorie A. Rollinson and has worked in the IRS at various levels since the late 1980s.
Paul isn’t the first government official who has been demoted for voicing concerns about access to sensitive systems or taxpayer data.
The Treasury Department, Social Security Administration, and other government agencies have experienced a wave in retirements, resignations, and demotions after voicing concerns about DOGE’s access to sensitive systems, and data on taxpayers.
According to two sources familiar with the departure of the official who are not authorized to speak publicly about the matter, Michelle King, the SSA acting commissioner , resigned from her position after 30 years in February, refusing to give DOGE access to Social Security recipients’ information. Leland Dudelk, the SSA fraud investigation office’s head, replaced King.
In a press release, Chye Ching Huang, executive Director of the Tax Law Center, New York University School of Law said that “the series of IRS officials” who put the law before their own job security, join a long line of public servants dating back to the Nixon administration, who resisted attempts by elected officials, to weaponize taxpayer information and systems.
Amy Gleason is the acting administrator of DOGE, even though Musk is at its helm. According to her LinkedIn profile, she is a U.S. Digital Service senior advisor, with a background in medical and consulting. DOGE supporters see the efforts of DOGE as a means to reduce federal spending.
In January, Mr. Trump created DOGE via an executive Order. He did not create it as an external advisory committee. The order stated that the U.S. Digital Service, a unit within OMB that worked primarily on government technology projects, would be renamed to the U.S. DOGE Service.
