Top lawyer at IRS removed amid DOGE push for taxpayer information: Sources
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(WASHINGTON) — The Trump administration is removing the Internal Revenue Service’s top attorney, according to two sources familiar with the move, amid an internal debate over sharing confidential taxpayer information with other government agencies.
Acting IRS chief counsel William Paul is set to be demoted to his previous role, and replaced by Andrew De Mello, another IRS attorney who was nominated by President Donald Trump to serve as the inspector general of the Department of Education during his first term, the sources said.
Paul was promoted to replace outgoing chief counsel Marjorie Rollinson in January.
His demotion at IRS headquarters comes as representatives of the Department of Government Efficiency have been working to secure agreements with other agencies to use and share taxpayer information across the government, to help with issues including the vetting of federal benefit payments and immigration information.
Section 6103 of the federal tax code requires the IRS keep individual taxpayer information confidential with certain exceptions, and some within the agency have raised privacy concerns about the proposals pushed by DOGE representatives for access to and the sharing of IRS data.
The Treasury Department and a spokesperson for the IRS did not respond to requests for comment.
The IRS is also expected to lose approximately 20% of its workforce — or roughly 18,000 jobs — by May 15 as part of staff cuts directed by the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, two sources familiar with the plans told ABC News.
That figure includes the probationary workers already dismissed and IRS workers who accepted the administration’s ‘buyout’ offer over email.
On Thursday, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to rehire the fired workers at the IRS and five other agencies, though the administration has filed a notice to appeal the ruling.
The agency’s taxpayer services and compliance departments are expected to lose thousands of workers in what could be the first of several waves of firings, one of the sources said.
(WASHINGTON) — After the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB) fired its probationary workers as part of the Trump administration’s government-wide layoffs Thursday, the agency moved on to fire short-term employees Thursday night with most of the remaining staff expected to be fired Friday, according to a lawsuit.
A group of federal unions that is suing the Trump administration over its dismantling of the agency alleged in a court filing Thursday that the newly installed acting director, Russell Vought, plans to fire over 95% of the agency’s workforce as soon as Friday.
The plaintiffs who brought the lawsuit are asking a federal judge to impose a temporary order to block the dismantling the CFPB, which they argue could have sweeping consequences for American consumers.
The firings, part of President Donald Trump’s campaign pledge to slash the federal government, would gut the 1,700-employee consumer watchdog agency, according to three CFPB employees who spoke to ABC News on the condition that they not to be identified out of fear of retribution.
“All term employees were fired tonight, and it looks like the rest of us will be fired tomorrow but for cause rather than via a [reduction in force] which means no severance I think,” one agency lawyer wrote in a message to ABC News.
“3 of my 4 teammates were canned,” another employee wrote. “Just me and my supervisor left, the only permanent employees.”
Employees were told not to work or go into the agency’s Washington, D.C., headquarters this week, and several employees said their credentials did not allow access into satellite offices in San Francisco, Chicago, New York and Atlanta on Thursday, two of the employees said.
The employees said the firings will leave all Americans more vulnerable to fraud.
“I’m worried about everybody. What about the people who use our complaints to get their loans straightened out or their bank accounts unfrozen? They’ve already tried calling the company and gotten nowhere,” an employee wrote. “Who will help them now? Will the companies get bold and screw over their customers without our robust oversight?”
“It’s going to be a nightmare,” the employee said.
“I’m concerned for every consumer out there,” another employee told ABC News. “There’s a lot of fintech companies and I don’t know what’s going to happen if we don’t have purview over that.”
The employee said she was also concerned about X CEO Elon Musk, the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, having access to the CFPB’s massive database, which contains information about companies that Musk’s planned “X Money” online payment service would compete with. The agency would also be responsible for regulating the X Money platform.
The employee also said she was alarmed at the way CFPB employees were being characterized by the Trump administration.
“A lot of people are actively giving back and serving” the community, she said of her fellow CFPB employees. “Some donate from our paychecks — donations for nonprofits, volunteering, donating, giving back to our community, fostering dogs, they’re involved in a lot of causes. I work with remarkable people who never stop serving.”
“Me personally, this was my dream job in college and I can’t even believe i got in, it was so competitive,” wrote the employee, who said she is in her fourth year at the agency after having worked in the private sector, so her pension will not vest. “It’s the dream job, what’s next? I’m too young to retire, I believe in the work we did, everyone I work with felt the same.”
(WASHINGTON) — The United States is going to ban Russian and Chinese software in vehicles, according to the Department of Commerce, due to national security concerns.
The final rule, posted on the federal register Tuesday morning, comes after the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security previewed the rule months ago.
During the rulemaking process, the Bureau of Industry and Security found that certain technologies originating from China or Russia present an undue and unacceptable risk to U.S. national security.
“Cars today aren’t just steel on wheels – they’re computers,” outgoing Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in a news release Tuesday. “They have cameras, microphones, GPS tracking, and other technologies that are connected to the internet. Through this rule, the Commerce Department is taking a necessary step to safeguard U.S. national security and protect Americans’ privacy by keeping foreign adversaries from manipulating these technologies to access sensitive or personal information.”
The software bans will apply to Model 2027 cars, while the hardware bans will apply to Model 2030 vehicles.
The final rule, which only applies to passenger vehicles, establishes that hardware and software integrated into the Vehicle Connectivity System (VCS) and software integrated into the Automated Driving System (ADS), the systems in vehicles that allow for external connectivity and autonomous driving capabilities, present an undue and unacceptable risk to national security when designed, developed, manufactured, or supplied by persons with a sufficient nexus to the PRC or Russia, the department said.
The department says it will issue a separate rule addressing commercial vehicles in the near future.
A senior administration official told reporters on a conference call that the automotive industry largely agreed with these recommendations, which were based on national security concerns.
“Malicious access to these critical supply chains could allow our foreign adversaries to extract sensitive data, including personal information about vehicle drivers or owners, and remotely manipulate vehicles,” according to a release from the Commerce Department.
The rule also prohibits manufacturers with a sufficient nexus to the PRC or Russia from selling new connected vehicles that incorporate VCS hardware or software or ADS software in the United States, even if the vehicle was made in the United States.
Another senior administration official said that the dangers of Chinese and Russian software extend beyond the car. If mobile phones are connected to this software, it could give China an easy way to extract user data.
“Recent malicious cyber activity, particularly activity that they do that was volt typhoon has really heightened the urgency of preempting even more risk to our critical infrastructure, and we’ve seen not just volt typhoon, but really mounting evidence of the PRC pre-positioning malware in our critical infrastructure, solely for the purpose of sabotage and disruption,” a senior administration official said. “With potentially millions of connected vehicles coming on the road, you know, each with 10-to-15-year lifespans, the risk of sabotage really increases substantially. The second set of risks, as was alluded to as well, are this data security risk given the massive amount of sensitive personal data, including geo location data, audio, video recordings and other live data that’s collected connected by these vehicles.”
(NEW YORK) — The battle between New York federal prosecutors and President Donald Trump’s Justice Department continued Friday as another prosecutor resigned over the order to dismiss Mayor Eric Adams’ bribery case.
Hagan Scotten, the assistant United States attorney for Southern District of New York, blasted Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove in a letter one day after acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Danielle Sassoon resigned over her refusal to follow through with the Justice Department’s request.
“In short, the first justification for the motion — that [former U.S. Attorney] Damian Williams’s role in the case somehow tainted a valid indictment supported by ample evidence, and pursued under different U.S. attorneys is so weak as to be transparently pretextual,” Scotten wrote.
“The second justification is worse. No system of ordered liberty can allow the Government to use the carrot of dismissing charges, or the stick of threatening to bring them again, to induce an elected official to support its policy objectives,” he added.
Scotten, an Army veteran who served in Iraq and clerked under Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh before he was appointed to the Supreme Court, chastised the president and the administration.
“I can even understand how a Chief Executive whose background is in business and politics might see the contemplated dismissal-with-leverage as a good, if distasteful, deal,” he wrote.
“If no lawyer within earshot of the President is willing to give him that advice, then I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool, or enough of a coward, to file your motion. But it was never going to be me,” he added.
The letter came hours after what several former and current federal justice officials dubbed the “Thursday afternoon massacre,” when six people involved with the case resigned and pushed back against the U.S. attorney general’s office.
Sassoon resigned Thursday over the Justice Department’s request to end the federal bribery case against the mayor.
The Justice Department planned to remove the prosecutors handling the mayor’s case and reassign it to the Public Integrity Section in Washington, D.C.
However, as soon the Public Integrity Section was informed it would be taking over, John Keller, the acting head of the unit, and his boss, Kevin Driscoll, the most senior career official in the criminal division, resigned along with three other members of the unit, according to multiple sources.
Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has the power to remove Adams from office, called the Department of Justice’s moves “unbelievably unprecedented” during an interview on MSNBC Thursday night.
“This is not supposed to happen in our system of justice,” she told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow.
Hochul, however, declined to discuss the possibility of removing the mayor.
“The allegations are extremely concerning and serious. But I cannot, as the governor of this state, have a knee-jerk, politically motivated reaction, like a lot of other people are saying right now,” she said. “I have to do it smart, what’s right, and I’m consulting with other leaders in government at this time.”
The Rev. Al Sharpton, a longtime ally of Adams, said in a statement Tuesday that he was convening with other Black clergy to discuss the situation but he already raised concerns about the mayor’s allegiances.
“President Trump is holding the mayor hostage,” Sharpton said.
Four prominent New York City Black clergy members — the Revs. Johnnie Green, Kevin McCall, Carl L. Washington and Adolphus Lacey — wrote a letter Wednesday calling on the mayor not to run for reelection this year.
“Eric Adams had every right to prove his innocence and many of us were willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, but that’s not what has happened,” they wrote.
Adams, a former NYPD officer and Democrat who previously registered as a Republican, was accused by federal prosecutors of taking lavish flights and hotel stays from Turkish businessmen and officials for more than a decade.
He and his staff members also allegedly received straw campaign donations to become eligible for New York City’s matching funds program for his campaigns, according to the criminal indictment that was issued in September.
In exchange, Adams allegedly used his power as Brooklyn borough president and later as mayor to give the foreign conspirators preferential treatment for various projects and proposals, including permits for the Turkish consulate despite fire safety concerns, the indictment said.
Adams pleaded not guilty, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and claimed without any basis that he was being politically targeted by the Biden administration, even though the probe covers many years before Biden was in office.
Adams’ primary opponents have called for him to step down since the indictment, as have other New York Democrats, such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
The mayor, however, appeared on “Fox and Friends” on Friday with Trump “border czar” Thomas Homan and reiterated he was not only staying in office but he would run for reelection as a Democrat. The deadline to change parties is Friday.
“People had me gone months ago, but, you know what, I’m sitting on your couch,” Adams told the hosts.
The mayor remained silent during the interview when Homan discussed Trump’s deportation policy and called on Hochul to resign for not cooperating with the federal office.
Adams, however, did light up and smile when the “border czar” discussed their partnership. The mayor announced Thursday the city would allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents into Rikers Island jail, a major shift in the city’s policies.
“If he doesn’t come through, I’ll be back in New York City, and we won’t be sitting on the couch,” Homan said with a laugh. “I’ll be in his office, up his butt, saying, ‘Where the hell is the agreement we came to?'”
Sassoon prosecutor warned in a letter that the close relationship between the Trump administration and Adams crossed a line.
In her letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Sassoon repeatedly suggested Justice Department leadership, including Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, was explicitly aware of a quid pro quo that was suggested by Adams’ attorneys.
Sassoon alleged Adams’ vocal support of Trump’s immigration policies would be boosted by dismissing the indictment against him.
Sassoon’s letter detailed a January meeting with Bove and counsel for the mayor, where she says Adams’ attorneys put forward “what amounted to a quid pro quo,” after which Bove “admonished a member of my team who took notes during that meeting and directed the collection of those notes at the meeting’s conclusion.”
“Although Mr. Bove disclaimed any intention to exchange leniency in this case for Adams’s assistance in enforcing federal law, that is the nature of the bargain laid bare in Mr. Bove’s memo,” Sassoon wrote in her letter.
Bove accused Sassoon of insubordination and rejected her claims. Trump told reporters Thursday he was not involved with the Justice Department decisions this week and claimed the SDNY prosecutor was fired, although he did not name her.
Adams also denied the allegations Friday.
“It took her three weeks to report in front of her a criminal action. Come on, this is silly,” he told the “Fox and Friends” hosts.
The dismissal, which is without prejudice, meaning it can be brought again, specifically after the November election, according to Bove’s request, has yet to be formally filed in court or reviewed by a judge.
ABC News’ Oren Oppenheim contributed to this report.
