Just two days after being named interim IRS commissioner, Gary Shapley is out of the job, CBS News has confirmed.
His roughly 48 hours heading the agency where he’s spent most of his career was marked by an internal struggle involving billionaire Elon Musk, who backed Shapley taking the job, according to two sources familiar with the dispute.
Shapley is expected to continue serving as an adviser to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the sources said.
Shapley was placed at the top of the IRS while President Trump’s pick for the job, Billy Long, has been awaiting Senate confirmation. Long, a former congressman from Missouri, has faced questions about his qualifications.
A former supervisor at the agency, Shapley became famous after speaking out about alleged political influence in the Hunter Biden tax investigation. Shapley was a supervisory special agent in his 14th year at the IRS when he came forward in a 2023 interview with CBS News chief investigative correspondent Jim Axelrod. He alleged internal misgivings about improper pressure to go easy on former President Joe Biden’s son.
Shapley was one of two IRS whistleblowers to testify before Congress about alleged misgivings in the Hunter Biden probe. The IRS agents alleged the Department of Justice “slow-walked” the investigation and told them not to probe leads related to Joe Biden. They were removed from the case and temporarily sidelined with pay. Hunter Biden later pled guilty to tax crimes and was pardoned by his father.
Shapley and another agent who said they faced retaliation after blowing the whistle to Congress and speaking out to CBS News about their investigation have already retained high ranking positions in the Trump administration. Shapley was initially assigned to Bessent’s office as a senior adviser for IRS reform, and later named deputy director of criminal investigations at the agency.
Mr. Trump revoked Secret Service protections for former President Joe Biden‘s adult children, despite an executive order signed by Biden extending those protections through July. An attorney for Hunter Biden did not return a request for comment.
Hunter Biden entered a guilty plea to the tax crimes after a Delaware judge rejected a plea deal that would have given him broad immunity. He was separately convicted in July 2024 on three felony charges related to the purchase of a revolver in 2018.
He was pardoned by his father in December, a controversial move since it was a “Full and Unconditional Pardon” that applied to any federal crimes Hunter Biden may have committed from Jan. 1, 2014, through Dec. 1, 2024.
This is a developing story and will be updated.