IRS Counsel Nominee Briefly Advised Trump Organization on Taxes

  • Michael Desmond worked for Trump’s outside tax law firm
  • He faces hearing Thursday on nomination for top IRS lawyer job
Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
Lock
This article is for subscribers only.

President Donald Trump’s nominee for chief counsel of the Internal Revenue Service briefly advised the future president’s real estate company on a tax question several years ago.

Michael Desmond counseled the Trump Organization on “a discrete reporting matter for a subsidiary company that was resolved with no tax impact,” James Wilkinson, a spokesman for Desmond, said in a written statement to Bloomberg News. Wilkinson said Desmond didn’t interact with anyone at the Trump Organization, which was a longtime client of two other partners at his law firm.