From his position and demoted after he resisted efforts by DOGE to access confidential taxpayer data in their pursuit of waste, fraud and abuse in the IRS system.
William Paul, the IRS’ acting chief counsel, was recently removed from his position, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, citing multiple sources.
Paul is expected to be replaced by another IRS lawyer, Andrew De Mello, who was nominated to be the Education Department’s inspector general during President Trump’s first administration, according to the sources.
Paul told an internal meeting earlier Thursday that he was being reassigned because allies of Musk viewed him as being uncooperative.
Democrats are raising alarms over access by Musk’s team to the Treasury Department’s payment system, the IRS, and the Social Security Administration.
The IRS last month was poised to hand over unlimited access to taxpayer data to Musk adviser Gavin Kliger of the Office of Personnel Management, who visited the agency to meet with IT and compliance staff.
The chief counsel position is one of two IRS Senate-confirmed positions, in addition to the commissioner. The White House hasn’t formally nominated someone for the chief counsel role. De Mello’s appointment is expected to be announced by the White House under the Vacancies Act, Paul said Thursday and according to a person familiar who shared the information with Bloomberg Tax.
The IRS declined to comment.
News of the internal reshuffle surfaced as Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has been working at the IRS to gain access to its sensitive tax database, with fraud becoming a major focus of the deficit-cutting initiative.
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