The IRS replaces its top advisor with a DOGE-friendly lawyer, AP sources say.

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

WASHINGTON (AP) — Acting Internal Revenue Service (IRS) chief counsel William Paul has been removed from his position at the agency and replaced by Andrew De Mello, a lawyer in the chief counsel’s office and widely seen as a supporter 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 because of his disagreement with alleged pressure from the IRS to share tax information with multiple agencies. The news also coincides with the IRS’s plans to implement massive staff cuts.

The IRS is developing plans to cut its workforce by up to half through a combination of layoffs, furloughs, and incentive buyouts, as part of President Donald Trump’s efforts to reduce the federal workforce. The government is closing agencies, laying off nearly all probationary employees who have not yet obtained civil service protection, and offering buyouts to nearly all federal employees through a “deferred resignation program” to rapidly reduce the government workforce.

In February, about 7,000 IRS employees with probationary periods of about a year or less were laid off from the agency.

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

Paul is not the first government employee to be demoted after raising concerns 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.

“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.