Representative Ilhan Omar’s troubles with the Federal Election Commission worsened last month.
Now, aside from inquires she faces about her campaign’s payments to her boyfriend, the leftist congresswoman’s campaign is in trouble for hiding the details of contributions exceeding $200. The FEC sent notice to the campaign to compile and submit the information by December 26.
Perhaps the Somali refugee doesn’t know it, but politics in the United States aren’t like they are back in her homeland, where corruption is routine. Candidates for state and federal office cannot do whatever they wish in raising money. Some campaign contributions must be reported in detail.
The letter inquiring about suspicious contributions aren’t Omar’s only troubles with the FEC and other government agencies. She’s violated campaign-finance law in Minnesota, pulled other shenanigans in divorce court and with the Internal Revenue Service, and faces a complaint in the House Ethics Committee thanks to her multiple suspicious marriages.
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The Letter
As the Washington Free Beacon reported, the FEC’s letter does not accuse the Muslim radical of wrongdoing, but instead merely asks for more details about her contributors. The agency is worried about nearly $1 million in contributions.
Noting that the campaign had listed $833,961.64 in “unitemized receipts,” the FEC’s Ryan Furman, a senior campaign finance analyst, explained for Omar’s clearly inexperienced staff that “when contributions of an individual reach $200 for an election cycle, each subsequent contribution from that individual must be itemized regardless of the amount.”
The letter says failure to respond will invite an audit or an “enforcement action.” Furman also warned the campaign that it will not receive a reminder from the agency. Nor will the agency consider a request for an extension.
By the day after Christmas, Omar’s campaign people better have answers.
Other FEC Troubles, Fined in Minnesota
Omar’s other FEC problems include The National Legal Policy Center’s complaint in connection with her campaign’s exorbitant payment to her boyfriend Tim Mynett’s consultancy. That complaint arose from accusations in divorce papers filed by Mynett’s jilted wife, who claims he hid his affair with Omar behind the facade of travel for her campaign.
Mynett’s romance with Omar has paid handsomely, but at any rate the travel “may have been unrelated or only partially related to Omar’s campaign,” NLPC wrote in its complaint. If the campaign “reimbursed Mynett’s LLC for travel so that Rep. Omar would have the benefit of Mynett’s romantic companionship, the expenditures must be considered personal in nature.”
Those expenditures, of course, would violate campaign-finance law. Omar is quite familiar with penalties for that.
In June, the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board ruled that Omar broke state campaign-finance law when she spent campaign money on “personal out-of-state travel and help on her tax returns,” the Associated Press reported. Omar had to repay her campaign $3,500, then paid a $500 fine for using campaign money for a trip to Florida. On that trip, AP reported, she accepted an honorarium.
Immigration and Student-loan Fraud
If all that isn’t enough, there’s more.
Omar is credibly accused of marrying her brother to commit immigration and student-loan fraud, and even filed fraudulent tax returns. While married to the brother, she filed a joint return with another man she divorced just last month to shack up with Mynett.
As The New American reported in July, Judicial Watch filed a complaint alleging immigration and student-loan fraud with the House Ethics Committee. The watchdog group alleged that Omar “married her brother … to assist his emigration to the United States from the United Kingdom. The same immigration fraud scheme may have aided [the brother] in obtaining federally-backed student loans.”
The congresswoman’s nearly incomprehensible marital history raises the question of bigamy. She lived with both men at the same time, as TNA has reported.
Omar divorced the man believed to be her brother in 2017 to marry the man she just divorced — again, to take up with Mynett.
In papers filed for that first divorce, as TNA reported, Omar lied to the court.
Photo: AP Images
R. Cort Kirkwood is a long-time contributor to The New American and a former newspaper editor.
