Ilhan Omar political consultant husband received $635K in Covid-19 bailout even after getting $2.25M in 2020
Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar is not new to controversies. The woman of color, who won his re-election bid to the House last month, has made the headlines both for professional and personal reasons. It seems the 38-year-old is now all set to court yet another one.
According to records, Omar’s husband got almost $635,000 in Covid-19 mailout money for his political consulting company, despite the former paying the same more than $2.25 million in the current year. E Street Group LLC, which is co-owned by Tim Mynett, who Omar married this year, was provided $134,800 in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans and an additional $500,000 in Economic Injury Disaster Loans in April, as per the records. The firm provided services to Omar’s election campaign including fundraising consulting, digital advertising and website production, as per the campaign records.
Daily Mail revealed in March that Omar married her political consultant -- an event that sparked a controversy and saw a complaint getting lodged with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) by a conservative group that alleged that funds meant for campaigning were used for Mynett’s personal travel. Both Omar and Mynett divorced their respective spouses late last year. The FEC took no public action on the complaint and Somalia-born Omar said the payments made to Mynett’s firm were not illegal, the Associated Press reported.
Omar ended contract with Mynett firm last month
However, the Minnesota (Congressional District 5) lawmaker announced after winning the election last month that her campaign was ending its contract with her husband’s firm, saying she wanted to assure her supporters that there is no perceived issue, the Star Tribune reported.
“Every dollar that was spent went to a team of more than twenty that were helping us fight back against attacks and organize on the ground and online in a COVID-19 world. And Tim - beyond his salary at the firm - received no profit whatsoever from the consulting relationship the firm provided,” the Squad member wrote in an email to her supporters in mid November. Mynett started working for Omar in 2018, the year she won the election by a huge margin. In 2020, her winning margin was less than that two years ago.
Omar’s campaign reportedly paid E Street Group more than $1.1 million for advertising and consulting in the third quarter of this year. The raw figures include, among other things, regular monthly payments of $67,000, broken down as $50,000 for "digital advertising", $5,000 for "digital consulting" and $12,000 for "fundraising consulting".
The revelation drew widespread criticism. Omar was accused of potential conflict of interest. Peter Flaherty, the chairman of the conservative National Legal and Policy Center that moved the FEC over Omar’s spending, told DailyMail.com in April: “Omar's campaign chest is looking more and more like a dowry.”
“Most candidates for federal office keep a close eye on their vendors to make sure they aren't being overcharged, but with her being married to her chief fundraiser the incentive may be the other way round as the money spent is going directly to the family,” he said. “Basically, her campaign finance disclosures read more like a wedding registry where friends can make gifts to the happy couple,” he added.