By Alexandra Alper and Karen Freifeld
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Trump administration has forced out a senior Commerce Department official overseeing export restrictions on China, three people familiar with the matter said.
Matthew Borman is leaving his role as principal deputy assistant secretary of commerce for export administration after decades of government service.
Borman “is the heart of BIS and one of the finest civil servants I’ve ever known,” said Eric Hirschhorn, a former head of the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security, where Borman worked.
The Commerce Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Borman could not immediately be reached for comment.
The move, not previously reported, comes amid a broader effort by President Donald Trump’s administration to shrink the federal government and oust many career officials, which it has often accused without evidence of seeking to subvert its agenda.
Borman, the senior-most career official in export administration, helped execute initiatives during Trump’s first term and under Democratic President Joe Biden to curb Beijing’s access to prized semiconductor chips.
He also helped implement punishing controls on Russia in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine and bring together a coalition of over 30 other countries to introduce similar restrictions.
The three people, who declined to be named, also said Eileen Albanese has left the agency, with two adding that she had also been forced out. Albanese served as the longtime director of the office that processes licenses for semiconductors and other national security-controlled items.
Washington lawyer Kevin Wolf, a former Commerce official, said Borman and Albanese had served Democratic and Republican administrations for 30 years.
“There are few better public servants who have devoted their lives to advancing U.S. national security objectives,” he said.
(Reporting by Alexandra Alper and Karen Freifeld; Editing by Bill Berkrot and Cynthia Osterman)
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