Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., paid her husband Tim Mynett’s consulting firm more than $600,000 in the first three weeks of July, according to Federal Election Commission filings released Thursday.
Omar’s reelection campaign spent nearly 77% of its available cash on Mynett’s services, which include consulting and advertising, according to the Washington Free Beacon.
She has already paid her husband’s firm more than $1 million in total since she began working with him.
She married Mynett—her third husband—in March after denying allegations, first confirmed by Mynett’s ex-wife, that the couple was having an affair.
She has continued to deny any wrongdoing, including in regards to her continued payments to Mynett, instead blaming any criticism on “rightwing Twitter trolls.”
My relationship with Tim began long after this work started.
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.
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) March 17, 2020
Omar has spent a massive amount of money on her reelection campaign, but she was still out-fundraised by her Democratic primary opponent, Antone Melton–Meaux.
Melton–Meaux raised $3.2 million last quarter—six times the amount Omar’s campaign brought in.
He said he’s receiving support from “across the economic spectrum.”
Not only are left-wing Democrats sending donations, but conservative donors and pro-Israel groups are flooding his campaign coffers in an attempt to oust the anti-police, anti-immigration enforcement incumbent.
Melton–Meaux has been using Omar’s extremism against her, arguing that she has “lost the trust of the Jewish community by her insensitive and harmful tropes.”
He promised to lead with a more unifying approach.
“Voters want to move past toxic politics of hate and division, which is rampant in Washington today,” he said in a statement.
Omar’s allies, however, have tried to undermine Melton–Meaux’s campaign by questioning where his campaign donations are coming from.
“Minnesotans need to ask where is this mountain of money coming from and why are they doing it and what do they expect for it,” said Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, an Omar ally who represented the district until 2018 and has been himself linked to the radical, anti-Semitic Nation of Islam.
