Democrat Ilhan Omar Has Paid Husband’s E Street Group Consulting Firm More Than $878,000 Since 2018

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., has paid her husband’s consulting firm more than $878,000 since 2018, and funneled $189,000 to Tim Mynett’s company in March, just weeks after she announced she had married him, Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings show. Mynett, a founder of the left-leaning E Street Group, has previously worked with Omar’s congressional campaign.

In 2019, Mynett had divorced his wife, Dr. Beth Mynett, and was accused of having an affair with Omar while he was still married. Omar was also married to her second husband, Ahmed Hirsi, for most of 2019, until she filed for divorce in October due to an “irretrievable breakdown” in their marriage.

Omar’s payments to Mynett’s firm have sparked allegations that she is using money from her campaign to boost their joint income.

Richard W. Painter, an attorney who served as a chief ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush, told the New York Post that Omar’s arrangement “should not be allowed.”

“I think it’s a horrible idea to allow it, given the amount of money that goes into these campaigns from special interests,” Painter said. “We already have enough problems with gifts to campaigns as a quid pro quo for political action.”

Omar tweeted in March that an attorney at the FEC found no legal issues in regards to her business relationship with her husband.

“We 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,” Omar wrote. “The second thing they would see: we pay fair market value for these services, but spend relatively little on fundraising compared to how much we raise, allowing us to invest more in organizing work to pass a bold progressive agenda.”

A public-affairs specialist at the FEC has previously told the Post that salary payments to a member of a candidate’s family are legally acceptable under certain conditions.

“Salary payments to a member of a candidate’s family are not considered personal use, provided that the family member is providing bona fide services to the campaign and at a rate that does not exceed fair market value of the services provided,” the specialist said.

Omar, 37, has represented Minnesota’s 5th congressional district since 2019, and is a member of the “The Squad,” a group of four progressive congresswomen who were elected in 2018. Omar was born in Somalia and came to the United States as a refugee in 1995, eventually becoming a U.S. citizen in 2000 at the age of 17.