Ilhan Omar reportedly splits with husband amid rumors of a previous marriage to her brother, moves into penthouse in Minnesota
Congresswoman Ilhan Omar and her husband, Ahmed Hirsi, have reportedly split and are on their way to a second divorce, according to the Daily Mail. The move comes days after President Donald Trump wrote a racist tweet about her and three other congresswomen of color, known as the "Squad" in Washington, as he asked them to go back to their own "crime-infested countries." Shortly after, the president also repeated unproven claims that Omar committed immigration fraud by illegally marrying her brother.
Omar had first married Hirsi in a religious ceremony in 2002 and divorced in 2008. The couple, after the congresswoman's second relationship, reunited and married legally in 2018. The outlet reported that Omar has now moved into a penthouse apartment in one of Minneapolis' trendiest neighborhoods. However, Hirsi also spends time at the apartment when she goes out of town.
When the outlet approached Hirsi about their alleged split, he said: "Wow, I can't comment on that," later adding: "I'm sorry, I just can't say anything," as he got into his BMW and drove off.
Hirsi was reportedly seen leaving the luxury apartment alone at 7: 45 am and returning to drop off his mother and his younger daughter almost three hours later. The couple have three children together.
A family friend while talking to the outlet said: "He only goes there when Ilhan is in DC. When she's in Minneapolis he sleeps at his house."
Hirsi was absent when the congresswoman returned to a hero's welcome at Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport last week after being attacked by President Trump. Reports state that Hirsi, at the time, was sitting in a Starbucks coffee shop close to the home that he and Omar shared during their marriage.
A Conservative activist group, Judicial Watch, filed a case against the congresswoman with the US House of Representatives Office of Congressional Ethics earlier this week, alleging that she had committed immigration fraud by illegally marrying her brother. The group claimed that Omar married Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, who was a longtime citizen of the United Kingdom, in 2009 to provide him an easy passageway into the US.
The allegations have been hounding the congresswoman since her 2016 Minnesota state legislature bid, and she had come out in public denouncing the claims. Omar had released a statement that year, calling the claims "baseless rumors" that "are absolutely false and ridiculous." The Democrat had then said that she married her current partner, Hirsi, as per Muslim tradition in 2002. However, she never legally married him and their relationship ended in 2008. Omar then legally married Ahmed Nur Said Elmi in 2009, however, they separated in 2011. "Insinuations that Ahmed Nur Said Elmi is my brother are absurd and offensive,” she said at the time. She eventually reconciled with her first husband Hirsi and the couple legally married in 2018.
Of the claims, independent fact-checking website Snopes wrote in February 2019: "We found no public records or credible sources contradicting Omar’s account of her past, nor any substantive evidence corroborating claims that Elmi is her brother or that their marriage was otherwise fraudulent. In addition, some of the claims offered in support of the rumor don’t seem to add up."