An Ilhan Omar update

The Daily Mail has recently published two stories — here (October 21) and, most recently, here (November 12) — covering the tabloid-friendly aspects of Ilhan Omar’s life and career. These stories directly demonstrate a few of the lies that Omar is living and indirectly illustrate the protective cover provided by the Star Tribune.

The Daily Mail is doing the work that the Star Tribune refuses to do, as I am here on Power Line. My thing is the incredible frauds in which Omar is enmeshed. I mean to keep at it until she removes herself from high political office. She is not the most important political figure in our firmament, but she lives and works in my back yard and I have developed knowledgeable sources as well as an appreciative readership in Minneapolis’s Somali community. Attention is warranted.

The Daily Mail’s coverage of Omar has had an impact in the Somali community. They are embarrassed by her. They do not appreciate the humiliation of her most recent ex-husband husband (Ahmed Hirsi, universally known by the nickname Southside), a widely respected player. They have come to see that she is quite the phony. They have come to see her as unrepresentative of the community. (I can’t say the same about the millennial snowflakes and other DFL activists in the district.)

In the past two weeks I have met with three new Somali sources. They have confirmed everything we have previously reported here about Omar’s back pages. I have in addition continued to meet with my original Somali sources. Their reliability has been proved many times over. Taken together, they have made the following points:

• There is widespread fear of Omar in the community. They do not feel free to speak out publicly. They require assurance that I will keep their identity in confidence.

• At a meeting with two of my three new sources last week, we spotted Hirsi through a window. “There is Southside,” said one of them, and told me to “close your notebook” (she actually closed it for me).

• They all know that Ahmed Nur Said Elmi is Omar’s brother. They didn’t all know that Omar purported to marry him in 2009 until we began covering the issue in 2016.

• Omar made a separate side deal with Hirsi to continue his public silence. She has agreed to pay him $250,000 over time. None of this is reflected in the October 31 divorce decree itself.

I would add only this note based on my own experience. This story is out there for the asking. Any serious reporter who spent time in Minneapolis would find it. The New York Times, the New Yorker, the Daily Beast, the Star Tribune and all the rest — they don’t want it. They want to leave it right where it is.

Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.

Responses