Rep. Ilhan Omar paid her husband’s consulting firm another $1.1 million in the third quarter of 2020, campaign finance records show.
Between July 23 and Sept. 30, E Street Group received $1.1 million from Omar’s campaign committee for expenses related to advertising, digital consulting, video production and editing, travel and more.
According to the Washington Free Beacon, E Street Group has now received a total of $2.7 million from Omar’s campaign this election cycle alone. The $1.1 million in payments accounts for 70 percent of the Omar campaign’s third quarter disbursements, the outlet said.
Omar was alleged to be having an affair with Tim Mynett, owner of E Street Group, in August 2019, but denied the allegations.
In March, however, Omar announced on Instagram that she and Mynett are now married. Omar divorced the father of her three children in November of last year while Mynett parted ways with his wife a month later.
Omar’s involvement with Mynett prompted a national nonprofit to lodge an FEC complaint against her, which claimed that the freshman congresswoman used campaign funds for “romantic companionship.”
Omar is also the subject of a House ethics complaint that claims she failed to disclose an advance she received for her May memoir. The complaint, filed by the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT), says that Omar’s 2018 and 2019 financial statements not only failed to include information about the book deal, but did not contain any assets, unearned income, or agreements, with the exception of a Minnesota state retirement account.
“Despite media reports identifying a sizable book deal, an examination of Rep. Ilhan Omar’s financial disclosures does not include any information about the book deal or proceeds. Given disclosure requirements, and the fact the book exists, it is likely Rep. Omar has profited from her book without being forthright with the American people,” said Kendra Arnold, executive director of FACT.
“Especially given apparent past failures to disclose information, and that she only reported a single asset on one of her two reports, the [Office of Congressional Ethics] needs to investigate Rep. Omar to ensure she has met the disclosure requirements of federal law,” Arnold added.
Omar defended the payments to E Street Group in a statement released earlier this year and said she “consulted with a top FEC campaign attorney to ensure there were no possible legal issues with our relationship.”
“We were told this is not uncommon and that no, there weren’t,” she said. “It’s disappointing that reporters would rather amplify the baseless claims and misinformation of right-wing Twitter instead of talking to actual experts on the law. This is everything wrong with media coverage in 2020.”
Anthony Gockowski
Anthony Gockowski is Editor-in-Chief of Alpha News. He previously worked as an editor for The Minnesota Sun and Campus Reform, and wrote for the Daily Caller.
