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Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar’s husband, Tim Mynett, owns a consulting firm, E Street, that’s on track to “earn” an estimated $1.16 million from her reelection campaign this year alone, doubling the $523,000 it “earned” last year.
The estimate is based on data obtained from the Daily Mail showing that Omar already paid the firm $290,000 during the first three months of 2020.
According to Peter Flaherty, the head of the conservative government ethics watchdog group known as the National Legal and Policy Center, her actions reek of impropriety.
“Omar’s campaign chest is looking more and more like a dowry,” he said in a statement to the Daily Mail.
“Most candidates for federal office keep a close eye on their vendors to make sure they aren’t being overcharged, but with her being married to her chief fundraiser the incentive may be the other way round as the money spent is going directly to the family.”
Last year Flaherty’s group filed an FEC complaint against Omar “alleging that she and her campaign violated the prohibition on the personal use of campaign funds by reimbursing political consultant Tim Mynett for his travel in 2019.”
View the complaint below:
It’s not clear whether the complaint has been adjudicated yet.
Tom Anderson, also of the NLPC, told The Daily Caller at the time: “We believe Representative Ilhan Omar may have touched the third rail of campaign finance law: disbursing campaign funds for personal use”
“It’s a brazen act Representative Omar was caught doing before in Minnesota and all of the evidence we’ve seen tells us she’s probably doing it again.”
True.
In the summer of 2019, the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board ordered the congresswoman to reimburse her own campaign $3,469.23 and pay a fine of $500 for the crime of misusing campaign funds.
“That includes a payment of $1,500 to a law firm that, her lawyer testified, was related to some corrections made to her personal tax returns that were discovered as part of an inquiry into her financial records by a ‘crisis committee,’” the Star-Tribune reported at the time.
“The balance of the reimbursement is for a handful of travel expenses: to a political rally for a Boston City Council candidate; a leadership conference for girls in Washington, D.C.; a young elected officials’ conference in New York; a human rights luncheon in Chicago; and to a fundraiser for the African Network of Southwest Florida.”
Minnesota Campaign Finance & Public Disclosure Board has released findings into @IlhanMN ‘s shady spending practices in response to state Rep. Steve Drazkowski’s complaints. She has been ordered to pay about $4,000 in reimbursements & fines, plus file amended disclosures. /1
— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) June 6, 2019
Here are the Minnesota Campaign Finance & Public Disclosure Board’s conclusions of law in re. @IlhanMN /2 pic.twitter.com/aKx4hdXEMO
— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) June 6, 2019
But instead of toning down her illicit activities once she entered the national spotlight, it appears the congresswoman opted to continue bumping up against the law.
Of this year’s payments, the Daily Mail notes that “[t]he raw figures, released late Wednesday by the Federal Election Commission, show that Omar’s campaign committee, Ilhan For Congress, paid E Street a total of $291,059.91 between January 1 and March 31.”
“That includes regular monthly payments of $67,000, broken down as $50,000 for ‘digital advertising,’ $12,000 for ‘fundraising consulting’ and $5,000 for ‘digital consulting.’ The other $102,000 is for expenses for items such as travel, postage and campaign merchandise.”
Of note is that while she’d been doling out money for “fundraising consulting” and “digital consulting” since her inauguration into Congress in early 2019, the $50,000 for “digital advertising” didn’t appear until December, the same month Mynett’s divorce with his estranged ex-wife was finalized.
Three months after Mynett’s divorce, Omar announced her marriage to him via Instagram:
View this post on Instagram
Got married! From partners in politics to life partners, so blessed. Alhamdulillah ❤️
Of note this time is how she’d repeatedly denied being involved with Mynett.
“No, I am not,” she’d confidently declared last August when asked by Minneapolis station WCCO whether she’d separated from her then-husband, Ahmed Hirsi, and was dating somebody else.
She’d clearly lied.
Listen (disable your adblocker if the video doesn’t appear):
When questioned about the congresswoman’s lies and discrepancies, a campaign spokesperson reportedly directed the Daily Mail to the following Twitter thread posted by Omar last month:
This is what happens when rightwing Twitter trolls are treated as authorities on campaign law.
Let’s clear the air.
1. The gov’t doesn’t fund my campaign. Grassroots donors do.
2. Everything we spend is used for a legitimate expense and paid at fair market value. (Thread) pic.twitter.com/pjBwtfDykz
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) March 17, 2020
It’s not clear how raising legitimate concerns about her shady spending habits makes one a “rightwing Twitter troll.”
And yes, doling out an estimated $120,000 to E Street immediately after marrying the company’s owner does seem awfully suspicious.
“On the day of the quickie ceremony in a Washington park she shelled out $498.80 for travel expenses and the $50,000 monthly payment fell due the following day,” the Daily Mail confirmed.
“In subsequent days she forked over $5,000 for research services and $1,046.83 for travel expenses. The actual details of the expenditure were not released in the FEC disclosures. Then on March 30, there were two separate payments totaling $63,834.18 for ‘mail, advertising, production and postage.”
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V. Saxena is a staff writer for BizPac Review with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University.
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