Ilhan Omar under FBI scrutiny over claims she married her own brother days after launching re-election bid
It’s just a year since Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar took office but she has made the headlines a number of times already, for reasons both political and personal. Last Thursday, January 23, Omar launched her re-election bid but amid the political developments, the Somalian-born lawmaker is facing another controversy on the personal front. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has started looking into claims that Omar married her brother and will reportedly furnish the (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) ICE with its findings.
According to a report in the New York Post, two FBI agents held a meeting in Minnesota with one political party in the middle of October last year where it handed over documents regarding Omar’s 2009 marriage to Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, a source having knowledge about the episode said. The Blaze reported about the meeting first in which it spoke about the discussions that the agents had over Omar marrying Elmi, a British citizen who was reported to be her brother so as to enable him to get a green card and study in the US, the source said.
The agents said they would convey the same to the ICE and the education department but did not commit launching a probe against Omar, one of the members of the ‘Squad’.
No confirmation from government agencies about probe
If 38-year-old Omar indeed married her brother, she could be found guilty of doing marriage fraud -- a felony offense that draws a jail term of up to five years and a fine of up to $250,000. The three government agencies, however, said they would not confirm whether an investigation is underway over the matter or if there could be a potential investigation, the Post added.
Omar, who was recently accused of betraying her country by passing on information to other countries, did not react to the marriage accusations, but she has repeatedly hit out at them in the past, calling them “disgusting lies”.
Omar’s personal life has been under the public scanner since she contested the mid-term elections of 2018 end. In October, the mother of three filed for divorce from husband Ahmed Hirsi after it was alleged that she was having an affair with her political aide Tim Mynett. The episode even saw Mynett getting divorced from his wife Beth Jordan, elder to him by 17 years.
Omar's complicated marriage life
Omar and Hirsi were engaged in 2002 but never married legally but just had a Muslim ceremony, according to the Democratic Congresswoman. They had two kids before they split in 2008. The next year, Omar married Elmi who she called a “British citizen” on their marriage license.
Allegations that Elmi is a brother of Omar surfaced first in a deleted post to the Somali Spot message board by one user named AbdiJohnson in 2016. Conservative blogger Scott Johnson picked it up on his blog and then it drew traction once President Donald Trump repeated it. Omar, Elmi and Hirsi reportedly lived in the same family home in Cedar-Riverside along with the two children of Omar and Hirsi. They then went to North Dakota where Omar started studying political science in 2009. Elmi also studied there for a certain period but dropped out, records suggest.
Omar and Elmi split in 2011 and the former got back with Hirsi with whom she had their third child, the records add. Omar finally got separated from Elmi in 2017 and legally married Hirsi a few months later before getting elected.