The case of Minnesota DFL House candidate Ilhan Omar and her marriage to Ahmed Nur Said Elmi grows curiouser and curiouser. Is Ahmed Nur Said Elmi the brother of Ilhan Omar? Was the marriage entered into for dishonest purposes? These are the question we have raised in a series of posts over the past two weeks. I summarized the case yesterday in “Omar so far.”
This much we know with certainty. Neither Omar nor the “love of her life” first husband is talking. They aren’t talking to the Star Tribune. They aren’t talking to KARE 11. They aren’t talking to KMSP 9.
Omar’s campaign has not even dignified my most recent questions — submitted, as instructed, “in writing so we have a record of any further communications,” to criminal defense attorney Jean Brandl — with a response.
Indeed, current Omar campaign spokesman Michael Howard has shut the door: “There will be no further comment from Ilhan Omar’s campaign beyond the statement she released…” (We posted the statement here.)
So there, you cynics and bigots.
Omar presents as the DFL’s hot new thing. She has emerged as a public figure of some renown. Yet she and her handlers think they can simply declare the subject off limits.
Preya Samsundar is on the case at Alpha News. Samsundar is the dogged reporter who has come to believe that Ahmed Nur Said Elmi is indeed Omar’s brother based on her analysis of social media. See “Further investigation suggests Omar married brother.”
Samsundar located an email address for Ahmed Nur Said Elmi. She contacted him by email. He concedes that he went to North Dakota State University (which Omar attended with her husband), though in 2005, not the years when Omar attended with her husband of the same name. He denies that he is Ilhan Omar’s husband or brother. He states that he and all his siblings reside in the United Kingdom. He requests that Samsundar remove the photos depicting him from her Alpha News report.
Samsundar infers that the Ahmed Nur Said Elmi whom she has located is something less than a paragon of veracity, although he does confirm that he is the man pictured in the photos she has posted. Explaining the First Amendment to him, she declines to remove the photos from her report.
Samsundar now posts screenshots of the messages she has received from Ahmed Nur Said Elmi and reports her findings in “The brother Ilhan Omar legally married sends Alpha News an email.” He apparently has not responded to her request for an interview.
Quotable quote: “Elmi then confirmed that the photographs that are in the Alpha News articles are definitely of him, and says that: ‘[N]o way am I affiliated with anyone in your articles. Nor do I recall being married to anyone. At least, from what I remember. :)’”
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