IRS Chief Counsel Demoted and Succeeded by DOGE Supporter

William Paul, the Acting Chief Counsel of the Internal Revenue Service, has been removed from his position and succeeded by Andrew De Mello, an attorney from the chief counsel’s office who is reportedly aligned with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), according to two individuals familiar with the developments who requested anonymity.

The sources indicated that Paul’s demotion was a result of his disagreements with DOGE’s purported initiative to disseminate tax information across various agencies. This change occurs amid the IRS’s plans to implement significant workforce reductions.

According to the Wall Street Journal, workers affiliated with DOGE have been exploring ways to leverage the IRS’s tax data, which could potentially determine an individual’s eligibility for federal benefits and assist in immigration enforcement.

The IRS is currently formulating strategies to reduce its workforce by as much as 50% through layoffs, attrition, and incentivized buyouts, aligning with President Trump’s agenda to decrease the size of the federal workforce. The administration is shutting down agencies, dismissing nearly all probationary employees who lack civil service protection, and offering buyouts to a majority of federal employees via a “deferred resignation program” to expedite the reduction of government personnel.

In February, about 7,000 probationary IRS employees with roughly one year or less of service were terminated from the organization.

However, the large-scale layoffs of probationary workers are now uncertain following a ruling by a federal judge in California on Thursday, which determined that the terminations made by the Office of Personnel Management were unlawful and mandated the reinstatement of six federal agencies’ employees. This decision by U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco came after a legal challenge filed by a coalition of unions against the Trump administration.

Paul had been appointed as Acting Chief Counsel for the IRS in January, taking over from Marjorie A. Rollinson, and has held several positions within the IRS since the late 1980s.

Paul is not the first government official to face demotion after expressing concerns about access to sensitive systems and taxpayer data.

Officials throughout the Treasury Department, the Social Security Administration, and other agencies have experienced a surge of retirements, resignations, and demotions when raising concerns about DOGE’s access to sensitive systems and taxpayer information.

In February, after three decades of service, Michelle King, the Acting Commissioner of the SSA, resigned from her position after refusing to grant DOGE access to Social Security recipient data, according to two individuals familiar with her departure who requested confidentiality. King was succeeded by Leland Dudek, who previously headed the SSA’s fraud investigation office.

“A number of IRS officials who prioritized legal compliance over personal job security join a long line of public servants, dating back to the Nixon era, who have resisted unlawful attempts by elected officials to exploit taxpayer data and systems,” stated Chye-Ching Huang, Executive Director of the Tax Law Center at New York University School of Law.

While Musk is at the helm of DOGE, the task force is under the leadership of Acting Administrator Amy Gleason. Her LinkedIn profile identifies her as a senior adviser for the U.S. Digital Service, with a background in consulting and the medical sector. Advocates of DOGE regard its initiatives as a means to curb excessive federal spending.

When Mr. Trump established DOGE through an executive order in January, he integrated it within the executive branch instead of forming it as an external advisory committee. The order stated that the U.S. Digital Service — primarily focused on government technology projects and operating within the OMB — would be renamed the U.S. DOGE Service.