Ilhan Omar paid nearly $150,000 more to alleged lover's firm after affair was revealed amid calls for probe
Congresswoman Ilhan Omar reportedly paid nearly $147,000 more for services to her political consultant and love than was previously reported. The additional payments were made above the hundreds of thousands of dollars given to finance chief Tim Mynett's consulting firm.
Omar's campaign reportedly gave $146,713 to Mynett's consulting firm, 'The E Street Group' for fundraising consulting, digital advertising, and video production, the New York Post reported.
The news came to light after the chairman of the conservative National Legal and Policy Center, Peter Flaherty, filed an amended complaint into Omar's campaign spending in October with the Federal Election Commission.
The Congresswoman officially divorced from husband Ahmed Hirsi earlier this month. The former couple's divorce came amid allegations that the Minnesota lawmaker had an affair with DC-based political consultant Mynett. Omar filed for the split in October in Minnesota.
The Post, in October, reported their source, a close friend of the estranged couple, as saying that Hirsi was determined to officially separate from the Minnesota Representative after it was revealed in a bombshell court filing that Omar allegedly had an affair with Mynett.
The revelation was made after Mynett's wife Beth filed for divorce citing his affair with Omar.
Flaherty, in his complaint, pointed out that Omar had over $369,000 in payments to Mynett since she hired his firm in August 2018. According to records filed to the FEC, nearly $25,000 of the amount is labeled as travel expenses, according to the Daily Mail.
"If 'Ilhan for Congress' reimbursed Mynett's LLC for travel so that Rep. Omar would have the benefit of Mynett's romantic companionship, the expenditure must be considered personal in nature," Flaherty wrote.
"Federal Election Commission regulations prohibit the use of campaign funds for personal expenses collateral to travel… unless personal funds are used to reimburse the committee."
The records with the FEC stated that Omar's campaign paid Flaherty $92,746 in July, and in August. The company pocketed another $54,000 in September, according to the Daily Mail. "If you total her expenditure, about one-third of it went to E Street," Flaherty told the outlet.
"A disbursement can be a ''travel'' expense or a ''fundraising'' expense but it cannot be both, even if the travel is in conjunction with fundraising activities," he said, claiming that both Omar's campaign and Mynett's company "either continue to disregard the law or misunderstand it."
"There continues to be reporting problems. But the bigger issue is her veracity and credibility," Flaherty added.