‘The Federal Election Commission essentially closed its doors so everyone knows they can pretty much do whatever they want to do…’
(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., has funneled $370,000 to the consulting firm of a man she allegedly cheated on her ex-husband with, the New York Post reported.
The new divorcée claimed recently that she was not seeing anybody, but the Post reported that Omar had been dating a married man, Tim Mynett, based on discussions with his wife, Dr. Beth Mynett and court documents filed in the couple’s divorce proceedings.
In April, according to the documents, the Mynetts separated after he revealed the affair with Omar, whom he met through his work for left-wing Democrats at the firm E Street Group.
Tim Mynett reportedly declared his love for Omar before leaving his wife, the mother of his 13-year-old child.
“Although devastated by the betrayal and deceit that preceded his abrupt declaration, Plaintiff [Beth Mynett] told Defendant [Tim Mynett] that she loved him, and was willing to fight for the marriage,” said the documents. “Defendant, however, told her that was not an option for him.”
Even with divorce likely to weigh heavily on the two wayward couples’ finances, the arrangement thus far seems to have been a boon for Tim Mynett.
The Post said that when news of the affair first broke, Omar’s campaign already had paid his firm $223,000 for services such as “digital advertising, fundraising consulting and video production.”
Filings since then have revealed an additional $146,712.63 in payments.
Although watchdog groups like Public Citizen and the National Legal and Policy Center have tried to raise the alarm, there seems to be little interest in pursuing accountability at the overwrought, understaffed Federal Elections Commission.
“We have no election cop on the beat,” Craig Holman, a government affairs lobbyist at Public Citizen, told the Post. “The Federal Election Commission essentially closed its doors so everyone knows they can pretty much do whatever they want to do and that’s the status of our political system today.”
Already Omar has come under scrutiny with investigative authorities like the IRS and the FEC for blurring her personal affairs with her political coffers.
Some have accused her of committing tax fraud—and possibly immigration fraud—while claiming she was married to Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, a British citizen at the time who is believed to be her brother. At the time, however, while supposedly married to Elmi, Omar continued to cohabitate and file taxes with her previous common-law husband, Ahmed Hirsi.
Omar later divorced Elmi, remarried Hirsi and continued having children with the latter before finalizing their divorce earlier this month.
However, in the wake of her romantic entanglements, Omar has been accused of using at least $3,000 in campaign expenses to cover a divorce lawyer, as well as other illicit reimbursements for things like travel and hotel accommodations.
Because her latest dalliance involves a contractor for her campaign, those expenses may come under further scrutiny. Six of the payments Omar made to the E Street firm, each exceeding $12K, were for travel expenses.
“On reflection Defendant’s more recent travel and long work hours now appear to be more related to his affair with Rep. Omar than with his actual work commitments, averaging 12 days per month away from home over the past year,” Beth Mynett wrote in her divorce filings.
Even if Omar is able to outmaneuver the government agencies probing her suspicious write-offs, another worry she now faces may be the House Ethics Committee, which has recently been busy with proceedings involving two other House Democrats, Reps. Katie Hill of California and Alcee Hastings of Florida.
Both were accused of maintaining inappropriate relationships with staffers following newly implemented congressional guidelines. Hill later resigned her seat.
Omar’s relationship with the Democratic leadership was strained after she faced intense criticism for a series of anti-Semitic tweets and public comments, prompting the House to pass an anti-hate resolution that, while watered-down from its original language, was a direct condemnation of her.
At least two other close allies of Omar’s in Congress, fellow “Squad” members Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and Alexandria Ocasio–Cortez, D-NY, also have faced tough questioning over allegations that they misused campaign funds during the 2018 election.