A Trump administration appointee asked the IRS in March to review an audit of MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, a close President Trump ally, according to The Washington Post, which cited two people familiar with the matter and records that the news outlet obtained.
The Treasury Department official, David Eisner, wrote an email last month to at least one senior IRS official, saying Lindell “is concerned he may have been inappropriately targeted,” the Post reported.
Eisner was instructed by an IRS official to address the concern by following up with an email that could be passed along to the agency’s watchdog, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), according to a source familiar.
The New York Times, which obtained a copy of the email, reported that Eisner referred to Lindell as “a high-profile friend of the President,” who “recently received an audit letter, from what I understand, his second in two years.”
“David Eisner is a dedicated public servant, and he acted appropriately with the expectation that this would be sent to the Inspector General,” a Treasury spokesperson told The Hill. “Sharing relevant information with nonpartisan Inspectors General is designed to be an effective and confidential way to help ensure all Americans are treated fairly.”
The Hill reached out to the IRS and TIGTA for comment.
In interviews with the Times and the Post, Lindell said the Treasury Department misconstrued his request, saying he reached out to the officials to resolve a conflict over the employee retention credit, a COVID-era benefit that his company claimed during the pandemic. He told the Post that he and the IRS disagree about which year his company should claim the credit.
He said the IRS referred him to the Treasury Department after he initially reached out, according to the Post.
The other inquiry, Lindell told the news outlets, is also related to timing: He disagrees with the IRS about which year to write off the cost of a drug he claimed would cure COVID during the pandemic.
“They want me to take that deduction in 2022, [but] I didn’t have big gains then,” Lindell told the Post. “I want to take the deductions when I had gains. This is another loss that I don’t need.”
Observers have raised concern about the potential for Trump administration officials to use the IRS to benefit allies or target political opponents.
The Trump administration on Wednesday asked the IRS to revoke Harvard University’s tax-exempt status, amid a feud between the president and the Ivy League school, which has refused to comply with a list of demands to retain federal funding.
That directive came one day after Trump floated the idea of revoking Harvard’s status in a post on his Truth Social platform, writing, “Perhaps Harvard should lose its Tax Exempt Status and be Taxed as a Political Entity if it keeps pushing political, ideological, and terrorist inspired/supporting ‘Sickness?’”
Updated at 10:42 p.m. ET.