Ilhan Omar has a troubling record. There’s evidence that Omar entered a sham marriage—with her brother—and committed tax and student loan fraud. There’s also evidence that she perjured herself.
The story was heavily reported by Powerline and AlphaNews. But emails show Omar’s people successfully shutting down the story at the Start Tribune—despite Strib reporters having real evidence of wrongdoing, and many unanswered questions. Those same emails also show Omar’s people seeking to get the story shutdown in other more “mainstream” sources, including Blois Olson’s “Morning Take.”
Now, after leaving her current husband to have an affair with Tim Mynett, a former campaign aide, it has emerged that Omar and Mynett are taking vacations together, and living together “on and off.” There is even talk that the two might get married, once both their divorces are finalized (it appears Mynett left his wife and child for Omar, too).
What does Omar’s personal life have to do with the corruption allegations? When Mynett was her “campaign aide,” Mynett’s consulting firm received $230,000 from Omar’s campaign. Six of the expenditures to Mynett in Omar’s filings are labeled “travel expenses,” worth almost $13,000.
Mynett’s wife, in the divorce papers she filed against Mynett, questioned whether that traveling was for legitimate campaign uses: “On reflection Defendant’s more recent travel and long work hours now appear to be more related to his affair with Rep. Omar than with his actual work commitments, averaging 12 days per month away from home over the past year,” her filing reads.
That’s a problem, because the law states that campaign travel expenses should be itemized. Yet Omar’s campaign just reported bulk expenses labeled as “travel.”
Where’s the Democrats’ “non-partisan ethics committee”?
This isn’t just a bad look for Omar. Minnesota Democrat Dean Phillips (CD3) is now chairing an investigation into Republican Arizona Congressman David Schweikert, who is accused of making improper campaign payments.
Schweikert says the whole thing is over a bookkeeping discrepancy. But AZCentral, part of USA Today, highlight the real point behind Democrats’ investigation: “Democrats, who see his Scottsdale-based 6th Congressional District as within their reach next year, see it differently.”
In other words, it is all about politics.
Dean Phillips says he’s being fair and touts the ethics committee as a nonpartisan post. If he’s being truthful about this, he should be investigating Omar too.
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Willis Krumholz
Willis L. Krumholz is a fellow at Defense Priorities. He holds a JD and MBA degree from the University of St. Thomas, and works in the financial services industry. The views expressed are those of the author only. You can follow Willis on Twitter @WillKrumholz.
