‘Elon is my prophet’: how Musk’s Doge team took a wrecking ball to Washington
Summary
In February 2025, a surprising email asked all US federal employees to list their work achievements for the previous week. At the IRS, this caused alarm because staff handle highly secret tax records that they legally cannot discuss, and many feared punishment if they replied with specific details.Key Facts
- On February 22, 2025, all US federal workers received an email asking for about five bullet points on what they accomplished the prior week.
- IRS Chief Privacy Officer Kathleen Walters was concerned because IRS employees must keep tax data strictly confidential by law.
- Many IRS workers worried about losing jobs or facing legal trouble if they shared detailed work information in their reply.
- The IRS processes about 266 million tax returns each year with a workforce of around 100,000 employees.
- Nine days before the email, a young man named Gavin Kliger appeared at IRS headquarters without authorization, claiming he was sent to fix IRS problems.
- The IRS security and human resources departments were not informed about Gavin’s visit or role, which caused confusion.
- IRS officials found the request to report detailed weekly work activities unreasonable given their legal obligations to protect taxpayer information.
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