MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell was forced to borrow $10 million to fight defamation lawsuits from voting machine companies and is now facing a personal tax audit that he believes is “suspicious.”
Lindell, a leading proponent of former President Donald Trump‘s false claims of a “stolen” 2020 presidential election, told Newsweek on Wednesday that it “sure seems suspicious” that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) decided to audit him.
“I mean, I’ve never been audited before in my life,” Lindell said. “This is just kind of weird. You know, auditing Mike Lindell. So, it sure seems suspicious.”
The pillow magnate suggested that the IRS audit was part of a pattern of government attacks that included the FBI seizing his phone at a Hardee’s restaurant last year.
Justin Sullivan/Getty
“I just think that it’s very suspicious,” said Lindell. “I get attacked from every direction. The FBI took my phone. I’ve never done anything wrong.”
“They still have it,” he continued. “I sued them and the government. It’s just one thing after another.”
Lindell went on to say that he suspects the IRS is trying to uncover his financial status as part of a plan to take all of his remaining money.
He said that company was forced take out a large loan to defend against lawsuits from the “crooked machine companies” that “no one heard of” before the 2020 election.
“Where does the attack end?” Lindell said. “It kind of seems suspicious: ‘well, let’s audit him, see how much money he has left and we’ll take that too.”
“I’ve had to borrow $10 million this last year, MyPillow has,” he added. “I had to borrow $10 million to fight these lawsuits and fight everything against it.”
Defamation lawsuits from Dominion Voting Systems, Smartmatic and former Dominion employee Eric Coomer have been filed against Lindell, who told Newsweek that he felt the legal battles were “getting a little old.”
Lindell lamented that he was no longer allowed to appear and “talk about MyPillow” and “our new MyPillow 2.0” on conservative media outlets like Fox News and Newsmax.
He claimed that Newsmax had made a “rotten” deal as part of the Coomer lawsuit that prevents him from going on Newsmax to “talk about anything anymore, including my pillows.”
Lindell admitted that conservative outlets were still accepting paid advertisements for MyPillow, which he said was a “completely separate” issue.
The tax audit was first mentioned earlier in the day on former Trump aide Steve Bannon‘s War Room podcast, where Lindell said that it was “an audit coming against MyPillow.”
He later clarified to Newsweek that he was personally the target of the audit, while MyPillow itself was not being audited.
Bannon asked Lindell whether he thought that the audit had come from a “political playbook” targeting him for “efforts to make sure the 2020 election is sorted out.”
Lindell agreed that it was, saying he gets “attacked every day” for wanting to “get rid of” the voting machines.
Newsweek has reached out to the IRS for comment.
