The Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board investigated Minnesota Fifth District Rep. Ilhan Omar for her misuse of campaign funds for personal purposes. The bipartisan board found Omar to have misused campaign funds repeatedly for her personal benefit. In the course of its investigation, the board found that Omar filed her 2014 and 2015 tax returns jointly with Ahmed Hirsi while she was married to Ahmed Nur Said Elmi — assuming that marriage wasn’t void because Elmi is her brother. Whether or not Elmi is her brother, the joint tax returns were illegal.
Omar’s 2014 and 2015 tax returns reflect her wayward way with the truth, her penchant for shortcuts, and her treatment of the marriage to Elmi as a sham (which I believe it to have been). They also raise obvious questions that the Star Tribune appears so far to have failed to ask. Early yesterday morning I wrote both Omar’s campaign spokesmen and Omar’s congressional communications director to address a few questions to her:
I write for the site Power Line (powerlineblog.com) and have a few follow-up questions on the Minnesota campaign finance board findings that Rep. Omar filed joint returns with Ahmed Hirsi in 2014 and 2015.
First, would you please identify all the tax years for which Rep. Omar filed returns jointly with Ahmed Hirsi prior to her legal marriage to him in 2018?
Second, would you please advise whether Rep. Omar believed it was lawful for her to file joint returns with Mr. Hirsi (a) before her legal marriage to him last year and (b) while she was married to another man from 2009-2017? If so, on what basis did she believe this?
Finally, does Rep. Omar believe that Fifth District voters have a right to know the answers to these questions insofar as they seem to bear on her fitness for office?
I would appreciate a response to this message as soon as possible but in any event no later than noon [today, June 10].
Thank you in advance for your courtesies and consideration.
I will separately post any response to my questions in the event one is received.
For those who are new to this story, I have embedded the board’s findings, conclusions, and order in its investigation of Omar’s misuse of campaign funds below. The St. Paul Pioneer Press has published a related timeline on the tax/marriage issue.
IlhanOmar1464 Findings by Scott Johnson on Scribd
UPDATE: Our long-time friend Michelle Malkin has kindly this post out to her two million-plus followers. The Star Tribune may be done with this story, but I am not done with it and neither is David Steinberg. With the attention of big-time journalists such as Michelle and others we are going to achieve lift-off.
Questions, questions, and more questions for the shady @IlhanMN via @scottwjohnson @powerlineUS https://t.co/FfN637iFD9
— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) June 10, 2019
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