IRS chief counsel is demoted and replaced with DOGE ally

The Internal Revenue Service’s acting chief counsel, William Paul, has been removed from his role at the agency and replaced by Andrew De Mello, an attorney in the chief counsel’s office who is deemed supportive of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, according to two people familiar with the plans who were not authorized to speak publicly.

The people said Paul was demoted from his position because he clashed with the DOGE’s alleged push to share tax information with multiple agencies. The news also comes as the IRS plans to institute massive cuts to its workforce.

Workers linked to DOGE have examined how they might use the IRS’ tax data, according to the Wall Street Journal, which noted that such information could be used to check if an individual qualifies for federal benefits and for immigration enforcement.

The IRS is drafting plans to cut its workforce by as much as half through a mix of layoffs, attrition and incentivized buyouts as part of President Trump’s efforts to shrink the size of the federal workforce. The administration is closing agencies, laying off nearly all probationary employees who have not yet gained civil service protection and offering buyouts to almost all federal employees through a “deferred resignation program” to quickly reduce the government workforce.

Already, roughly 7,000 probationary IRS employees with roughly one year or less of service were laid off from the organization in February. 

But the mass layoffs of probationary workers are now in doubt after a federal judge in California on Thursday ruled that their terminations by the Office of Personnel Management were unlawful and ordered six federal agencies to reinstate the employees. The decision by U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco followed a legal challenge brought by a group of unions against the Trump administration.

Paul was named acting chief counsel to the IRS in January, replacing Marjorie A. Rollinson, and has served in various roles at the IRS since the late 1980s.

Paul is not the first government official to be demoted after voicing concern about access to sensitive systems and taxpayer data.

Government officials across the Treasury Department, the Social Security Administration and other agencies have seen a wave of retirements, resignations and demotions for voicing concern about DOGE access to sensitive systems and taxpayer data.

After 30 years of service, Michelle King, the SSA’s acting commissioner, stepped down from her role in February after refusing to provide DOGE access Social Security recipient information, according to two people familiar with the official’s departure who were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. King was replaced by Leland Dudek, who oversaw the SSA’s fraud investigation office.

“The series of IRS officials who have put the law above their personal job security join a line of public servants, stretching back to Treasury and IRS leaders during the Nixon era, who have resisted unlawful attempts by elected officials to weaponize taxpayer data and systems,” Chye-Ching Huang, executive director of the Tax Law Center at New York University School of Law, said in a statement.

Although DOGE is spearheaded by Musk, the task force is led by acting administrator Amy Gleason. Her LinkedIn page lists her as a U.S. Digital Service senior adviser, and she has a background in consulting and the medical field. Supporters of DOGE see its efforts as a way to rein in bloated federal spending.

When Mr. Trump launched DOGE through a January executive order, he housed it within the executive branch, rather than creating it as an outside advisory committee. The order said the U.S. Digital Service — a unit that primarily worked on government technology projects and that exists within OMB  — would be renamed the U.S. DOGE Service.