ATF accused of 'circumventing' Trump order to place DEI staff on paid leave

The ATF, a federal law enforcement agency under the Department of Justice's umbrella, previously employed Lisa T. Boykin as its chief diversity officer before her title was changed on the ATF's website this week to "senior executive" with the ATF. An archived link of the ATF's website reviewed by Fox Digital shows Boykin was listed as the chief diversity officer as recently as Tuesday - Trump's second day in the Oval Office - and now shows her as working as the agency's "senior executive." 

The following day, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) told agency and department leaders to begin shutting down DEI offices and to place DEI employees on paid leave. 

A biography for Boykin from 2023 detailed that she began working as ATF's Human Resources Operations Division in 2016 and "as a collateral duty, in 2021, Mrs. Boykin also began serving as the Bureau's Chief Diversity Officer," the New York Post reported. 

"With the Bureau's continued focus on enhancing DEIA, Mrs. Boykin currently assumes the work of the CDO in a fulltime capacity, leading and implementing departmental programs and mandates, while bringing renewed vision and effective strategies to maintain an informed DEIA culture for the Bureau," Boykin's bio added.

When asked about the title change and subsequent criticism on social media, an ATF spokesman responded that the agency has followed DEI directives from the Trump administration. 

Fox News Digital asked for clarification on whether Boykin's new title protects her from administrative leave but did not immediately receive a reply. 

Fox News Digital also reached out to Boykin on her ATF email and received an automatic response noting she was unavailable to reply. 

"I am currently unavailable and unable to return e-mails at this time," the email read. 

Social media commenters and critics of the Biden administration's diversity initiatives slammed the ATF employee's title change on social media, clamming the agency is "circumventing" the Trump administration's orders. 

Biden championed diversity initiatives under his administration, rolling back the first Trump administration's policies that banned diversity training in government agencies during his first week in office in 2021. 

"In the weeks ahead, I will be reaffirming the federal government's commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion and accessibility, building on the work we started in the Obama-Biden administration. That's why I'm rescinding the previous administration's harmful ban on diversity and sensitivity training," Biden said in January 2021. "Unity and healing must begin with understanding and truth, not ignorance and lies."