15 hours Ago By Jack Phillips
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Friday confirmed that the Trump administration is replacing the acting director of the IRS, replacing Gary Shapley with Deputy Treasury Secretary Michael Faulkender.
After Shapley and another official, Joseph Ziegler, finish an ongoing investigation, the administration “will ensure they are both in senior government roles that will enable the results of their investigation to translate into meaningful policy changes,” Bessent added. Shapley, who was named acting IRS director earlier this week, notably came forward and said that when he was a former IRS criminal investigator, the Department of Justice (DOJ) slow-walked its investigation into Hunter Biden. He provided whistleblower testimony to House Republicans as they claimed that the Justice Department didn’t move on the investigation due to him being the son of then-President Joe Biden.
Faulkender said in a statement at the time he would work in “delivering prosperity for the American people, the reprivatization of our economy, national security through economic security, and working to support the President’s America First agenda.” Trump picked Shapley on Tuesday following the departure of the previous interim head, Melanie Krause, who quit the tax-collecting agency after it struck a deal to share data with federal agents on illegal immigrants in the United States. “The IRS Whistleblower Office Operating Plan incorporates extensive feedback received from whistleblowers, whistleblower practitioners, IRS employees, oversight bodies and other program stakeholders,” the IRS office’s director, John Hinman, said in a statement.
“Whistleblower information that the IRS can act on is an important component of effective tax administration as it bolsters the fair, efficient and effective enforcement of our nation’s tax laws, the success of our voluntary tax system and our efforts to reduce the tax gap.”.
