(Headline USA) Rep. Ilhan Omar’s, D-Minn., campaign expenses for consulting dropped by millions of dollars after she stopped working with her husband’s firm, according to Fox News.
Omar had dished out millions of dollars to E Street Group, a political consulting firm co-owned by her husband, Tim Mynett, before finally severing financial ties with the group in November 2020.
In the 2020 election cycle alone, Omar’s campaign paid E Street Group more than $2.8 million.
Following her husband’s firm’s removal, Omar’s campaign expenditures on consulting fell by around $2 million, a review of Federal Election Commission filings found. She spent only $1 million during the 2022 election cycle on the same services E Street Group provided.
Interestingly, Omar’s campaign still worked with a fundraiser connected to E Street Group: Rache Barnett, a former director at E Street Group who now runs Barnett Strategies LLC. But whereas E Street Group received $300,000 from Omar’s campaign’s fundraising endeavors, Barnett received only $100,000.
In 2020, Omar’s campaign announced it was terminating its contract with E Street Group to “make sure anybody who is supporting our campaign with their time or financial support feels there is no perceived issue with that support.”
However, Omar continued to defend working with and paying her husband.
“Every dollar that was spent went to a team of more than 20 that were helping us fight back against attacks and organize on the ground and online in a COVID-19 world,” Omar said at the time. “And Tim — beyond his salary at the firm — received no profit whatsoever from the consulting relationship the firm provided.”
Omar said her relationship with Mynett “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,” she claimed. “We were told this is not uncommon.”
