Ilhan Omar Violated Campaign Finance Law to Cover Claims She Married Her Brother
Minnesota Public Disclosure Board finds Democrat misused funds for personal spending
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Radical Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) has been hit with campaign finance violation fines after the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board discovered she used funds for personal use, including a cover-up operation of claims she married her brother, according to reports.
On Thursday, the board revealed that Omar has been fined for violating state campaign finance rules, in part due to expenditures that arose from setting up a "crisis committee" to tackle allegations that she was once married to her biological brother.
The board published its findings, showing that the Democratic congresswoman used campaign funds for personal travel and hotel expenses, to pay a law firm to review her tax and immigration records, and to pay an accountant to fix her personal tax filings.
Omar has been ordered to personally reimburse her own campaign account with $3,469.23 that she misused and pay a civil penalty of $500 for violating state campaign finance legislation.
The violations occurred during Ilhan Omar's time as a Minnesota state House representative in 2016 and 2017, and the amount she is ordered to reimburse represents the illegal spending of campaign funds in that time period.
According to the board's report, the illegal spending includes a payment of $1,500 Omar's campaign made to a law firm following the formation of a "crisis committee" in August 2016.
The committee was formed to respond to allegations that Omar was "married to her brother as part of an immigration scheme," the board states in its report.
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According to the Daily Mail, the board found that the law firm, originally tasked with reviewing tax and immigration records to rebut the marriage claim, incidentally discovered an error in Omar's personal taxes and was reimbursed for paying an accountant to correct it, an expense that the board ruled an impermissible use of campaign funds.
The board also found that Omar's campaign committee made several improper expenditures for her travel to Boston, Washington DC, New York and Florida.
"I'm glad this process is complete and that the Campaign Finance Board has come to a resolution on this matter," Omar said in a statement to DailyMail.com.
"We have been collaborative in this process and are glad the report showed that none of the money was used for personal use, as was initially alleged."
Omar went on to say that she plans to close the account from her state House race and distribute the funds to organizations that help train first-time candidates to run for office.
Omar, a Somali immigrant and naturalized U.S. citizen who has been legally married twice in the U.S., has in the past vehemently denied claims that she was formerly married to her brother, an allegation that appears to have emerged on a Somali online discussion board.
According to marriage records in Minnesota's Hennepin County, Omar applied for a license in 2002 to marry her current husband, Ahmed Abdisalan Hirsi, who Omar says went by Ahmed Abdisalan Aden at the time.
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Records show a marriage certificate wasn't issued and Omar has said they didn't pursue a civil marriage but instead married in their Muslim "faith tradition."
Omar and Hirsi had two children but ended their relationship in 2008, she has said.
Omar then legally married Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, whom she said is a British citizen, on February 12, 2009, according to a marriage certificate issued in Hennepin County.
Conservative online sites have alleged that Elmi is Omar's brother and she married him to commit immigration fraud in the form of providing him a quicker path to U.S. citizenship.
Omar said in a 2016 statement: "Insinuations that Ahmed Nur Said Elmi is my brother are absurd and offensive."
Sorting out these claims is difficult without access to immigration records, birth certificates or other documents that could prove parentage or family lineage.
Omar has said she and others can't get birth certificates because the infrastructure in Somalia collapsed during a civil war that displaced over 2 million Somalis.
Omar said that her relationship with Elmi ended in 2011 and the two divorced in their faith tradition, but Omar didn't take legal action to divorce him until 2017.
The divorce records say that Omar and Hirsi reunited and had a third child together in June 2012.
Omar legally married Hirsi in early 2018, a month after her divorce from Elmi was finalized.
Lawsuit Seeks Investigation into Claims Omar Abused Immigration System
— Neon Nettle (@NeonNettle) May 30, 2019
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The campaign finance complaint against Omar was first brought by state Rep. Steve Drazkowski, a Republican in the Minnesota House.
At the time, Omar's campaign issued a statement saying that Drazkowski's allegations were politically motivated "and it should be concerning to his constituents that he is using taxpayer dollars to harass a Muslim candidate."
"We recognize how these folks are deeply invested in stopping a progressive, Black, Muslim, hijab-wearing, immigrant woman," Omar said.
"We know these people are part of systems that have historically been disturbingly motivated to silence, discredit and dehumanize influencers who threaten the establishment."
Drazkowski said in a statement on Thursday that the results of the probe provide "no reassurance to Minnesotans," and the report "raises even more troubling questions."
