The Office of Special Counsel protects federal employee whistleblower rights, while the Office of Government Ethics prevents conflicts of interest.

A lower court temporarily reinstated Hampton Dellinger, head of the Office of Special Counsel, after he sued the administration this month for firing him.

A tearful executive at the U.S. Internal Revenue Service told staffers on Thursday that about 6,000 employees would be fired, a person familiar with the matter said, in a move that would eliminate roughly 6 percent of the agency’s workforce in the midst of the busy tax-filing season.