The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has discreetly replaced its long-serving, left-leaning chief spokesperson, Jodie Reynolds, without any public announcement or explanation.
Reynolds, who has been with the agency for 27 years and was frequently quoted in news stories, has a history of legal trouble, including an arrest for driving under the influence, according to court documents obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Reynolds' removal from her position was subtly indicated by the IRS when her name was erased from an organizational chart following inquiries from the Daily Caller News Foundation about her past. The updated chart now displays a new "acting" chief.
The IRS' decision to retain Reynolds despite her legal issues has been criticized by conservative groups, who argue that it demonstrates a double standard within the agency responsible for enforcing the law on American citizens.
"Jodie Reynolds is a perfect case study of the rot inside the IRS," said Tom Jones, president of the American Accountability Foundation (AAF), in a conversation with the Daily Caller News Foundation. "This is an agency that will hammer working Americans over a paperwork mistake, yet it kept a top official on payroll after she was arrested for drunk driving."
Reynolds, 50, was in charge of an office that managed the IRS' relations with Congress, other government agencies, the news media, and other groups, as per the IRS website. Despite multiple attempts by the Daily Caller News Foundation to reach her for comment, Reynolds did not respond, and the IRS' media office remained silent about her employment status.
Reynolds' social media activity revealed her disapproval of policy decisions made by both Republican and Democratic administrations. She posted "#familiesbelongtogether" on Twitter in 2018, referencing a social media campaign against family separation, a policy critics attribute to President Donald Trump's border policies. She also liked a LinkedIn post by a lawyer who announced that she had sued to prevent Trump from firing her from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
Reynolds was arrested in October 2015 by Knightstown, Indiana police for speeding, nearly veering off the road, and "failing to signal lane changes," according to the local police department's affidavit. At the time of her arrest, she was employed as a media relations specialist at the IRS.
Reynolds, who was living in Indiana at the time, told police officers that she had consumed five beers that evening, adding "that she has a government job and that she will lose it if she gets into trouble," according to the affidavit.
Despite her arrest, Reynolds continued to work at the IRS under the Obama administration, having been employed there since 1998. She eventually rose to become the head of its communications office in 2023, a highly visible and influential position. The affidavit from her 2015 arrest described Reynolds as "abusive" towards police and noted that she refused to take a chemical test to determine her blood-alcohol content. "She was very argumentative and showed mood swings," an Indiana state trooper wrote.
Reynolds' refusal to take a breath test, which is a crime in Indiana, led to police obtaining a warrant to draw her blood at a hospital, revealing that she was unlawfully drunk while driving. The document also revealed that Reynolds had five other traffic violations dating back to the 1990s, four of which were for speeding. She failed to pay the fine for one of the offenses and had her license suspended in 1995.
Reynolds pleaded guilty to operating a vehicle while intoxicated and served one year of probation. She initially requested a jury trial to fight her charges, but due to her probation, Reynolds walked away from the 2015 incident with no conviction on her record. Less than two months after her arrest, Reynolds asked a court to grant her limited driving privileges, and a judge agreed in December, finding that she did not refuse a chemical test "knowing and willfully."
"Reynolds couldve killed someone, and instead of firing her, the IRS handed her a promotion," the AAFs Jones told the Daily Caller News Foundation. "If that doesnt tell you everything about the culture of that agency, nothing will."
The IRS began laying off workers by the dozens in February amid scrutiny from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Trumps agency working to shrink government bureaucracy. The IRS reportedly fired almost a third of its tax auditors and about 50 IT executives by March, with DOGE planning to cut its total staff by up to two-thirds.
Reynolds made her left-leaning views public in 2017, by approvingly reposting a video on Twitter by a Black Lives Matter activist. The post declared: If youre tired of going to work and making money for other people, then youre probably tired of capitalism.
This public display of her political leanings, coupled with her legal issues, raises questions about the IRS' decision to retain and promote her, and the standards it upholds for its top officials.
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