Trump appointee asked IRS to review audit of MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell

A Trump administration official in March asked the IRS to review an audit of MyPillow chief executive and conservative political personality Mike Lindell, according to two people familiar with the request and records obtained by The Washington Post.

David Eisner, a political appointee at the Treasury Department, wrote to senior IRS staff that Lindell – whom he called a “high profile friend of the president” – had received his second audit letter in two years and “he is concerned he may have been inappropriately targeted.”

The IRS referred the inquiry to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, the agency’s independent watchdog, said one of the people, who like others in this report spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

Tax experts say the outreach on behalf of a Trump political ally is highly unusual and represents a sea change in how political appointees engage with the nonpolitical tax agency.

“That’s so inappropriate,” said Nina Olson, who served as the national taxpayer advocate from 2001 to 2019. “In my 18 years as the national taxpayer advocate with over 4 million cases that came into the Taxpayer Advocate Service, in that time with taxpayers experiencing significant problems with the IRS, I have never had a Treasury official write me about a case.”

In an interview, Lindell said the Treasury Department had “misconstrued” his request. Lindell said he sought help from the IRS to resolve a problem with the employee retention credit his company claimed during the covid-19 pandemic. Congress authorized a tax credit for employers that kept staffers on their payrolls during the economic downturn caused by the pandemic.

Lindell and the IRS disagree about which year his company should claim for the credit, he said. After he emailed the IRS several weeks ago criticizing the program, the tax agency referred him to the Treasury Department, he said.

Lindell also faces a separate proceeding with the IRS over losses he wishes to claim after $10 million of a substance he claimed would cure covid-19 expired while sitting in a Minnesota warehouse, he said. That is also an issue of timing, he said.

“They want me to take that deduction in 2022, but I didn’t have big gains then,” Lindell said. “I want to take the deductions when I had gains. This is another loss that I don’t need.”

Eisner and a representative for the Treasury Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A representative from the IRS declined to comment.

The Trump administration has taken steps in recent weeks to leverage the tax agency for political or ideological aims.

On Wednesday, the administration requested that the IRS’s top attorney revoke the tax-exempt status for Harvard University amid Trump’s row with the institution over its handling of antisemitism and diversity practices.

The Department of Homeland Security also reached an agreement with the Treasury Department to access confidential personal tax information to locate up to 7 million people suspected of being in the United States illegally. IRS attorneys cautioned repeatedly that the arrangement probably violated privacy laws.