Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) was found by the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board on Thursday to have committed several campaign finance violations — and its findings have revived old questions about the legality of her marriage.
In July 2018, Minnesota State Rep. Steve Drazkowski (R-Mazeppa) filed a complaint with the board against the Neighbors for Ilhan (Omar) campaign committee, which had supported her campaign for state representative. He claimed that she had improperly spent campaign funds on legal work related to her divorce. He later filed additional complaints that she had improperly spent campaign funds on out-of-state travel.
The board’s investigation into Omar found several violations. It noted that while none of Omar’s legal expenses had been for her divorce, she had spent $1,500 on legal expenses related to her personal taxes that were not sufficiently related to the campaign. Furthermore, the board found that some of her out-of-state travel expenses were not related to her legislative duties. She has been ordered to pay reimbursements to her campaign, to file amended campaign finance statements, and to pay a civil fine of $500 to the state.
The board’s report also noted that Omar and Ahmed Hirsi, her current husband, “filed joint tax returns for 2014 and 2015.” That could add fuel to persistent allegations that Omar had been married to two men at the same time — one of whom, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, City Journal noted in 2016, was rumored (though never proven) to be her brother.
Man dead, another critical after double stabbing at Brooklyn park as police detain person of interest: NYPD
Trump scores another endorsement win with Louisiana Senate runoff victory
Louisiana Democrats pick rural farmer to challenge GOP in uphill Senate bid
Ketanji Brown Jackson Really Worried Judges Might Actually Apply Second Amendment In Gun Cases
Taxpayer Dollars May Have Funded Education Of CCP Assets, Report Reveals
Parents of 7-year-old who died weighing 255 pounds charged with murder in suspected neglect case
Red States Unite Against California Over It’s Alleged Plot To Impose Green Agenda On Nation
New York Might Make Mamdani’s City-Owned Grocery Stores Permanent
NY AG hopeful blasts Letitia James as Medicaid fraud recoveries collapse: ‘She’s not doing the job’
Trump nominates Oklahoma law enforcement veteran Lance Schroyer to lead ICE as permanent director
Two 14-year-olds flee MTA officers, remain missing after vanishing from New Jersey train station
Judge rules Dan Sullivan can appear on Alaska primary ballot against Sen. Dan Sullivan
Jeffries welcomes Democratic Socialists into the fold as critics warn party is revealing ‘exactly who it is’
Polygamous sect leader convicted of abuse charges after girls found in trailer on Arizona highway
Hezbollah rejects Israel and Lebanon’s peace framework: ‘Null and void’
Omar issued a statement in 2016 denying the allegations:
In 2002, when I was 19 years old, Ahmed Hirsi (whose name before he received citizenship was Ahmed Aden), the father of my children and love of my life, and I, applied for a marriage license, but we never finalized the application and thus were never legally married. In 2008, we decided to end our relationship in our faith tradition after reaching an impasse in our life together.
I entered into a relationship with a British citizen, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, and married him legally in 2009. Our relationship ended in 2011 and we divorced in our faith tradition. After that, he moved home to England. I have yet to legally divorce Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, but am in the process of doing so. Insinuations that Ahmed Nur Said Elmi is my brother are absurd and offensive.
Man dead, another critical after double stabbing at Brooklyn park as police detain person of interest: NYPD
Trump scores another endorsement win with Louisiana Senate runoff victory
Louisiana Democrats pick rural farmer to challenge GOP in uphill Senate bid
Ketanji Brown Jackson Really Worried Judges Might Actually Apply Second Amendment In Gun Cases
Taxpayer Dollars May Have Funded Education Of CCP Assets, Report Reveals
Parents of 7-year-old who died weighing 255 pounds charged with murder in suspected neglect case
Red States Unite Against California Over It’s Alleged Plot To Impose Green Agenda On Nation
New York Might Make Mamdani’s City-Owned Grocery Stores Permanent
NY AG hopeful blasts Letitia James as Medicaid fraud recoveries collapse: ‘She’s not doing the job’
Trump nominates Oklahoma law enforcement veteran Lance Schroyer to lead ICE as permanent director
Two 14-year-olds flee MTA officers, remain missing after vanishing from New Jersey train station
Judge rules Dan Sullivan can appear on Alaska primary ballot against Sen. Dan Sullivan
Jeffries welcomes Democratic Socialists into the fold as critics warn party is revealing ‘exactly who it is’
Polygamous sect leader convicted of abuse charges after girls found in trailer on Arizona highway
Hezbollah rejects Israel and Lebanon’s peace framework: ‘Null and void’
Since 2011, I am happy to say that I have reconciled with Ahmed Hirsi, we have married in our faith tradition and are raising our family together.
The rumors persisted into the 2018 election, when Omar was elected to Congress. She told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that the stories had been written by “fake journalists on bigoted blogs.”
The campaign finance board’s report notes that Omar filed joint tax returns with Hirsi. But by her own admission in 2016, she was not yet legally divorced from Elmi. There is no legal basis for a joint filing by an unmarried couple.
In a statement, Drozkowski noted that the campaign finance board’s findings had found Omar violated campaign finance law and noted that the report “raises even more troubling questions.”
