Ilhan Omar has paid her husband $878,000 from her campaign war chest, which could be problematic as she already has at least one ethics complaint filed against her already. It is illegal to enrich yourself using funds donated to your campaign. Both Omar and her husband, Tim Mynett were both married when they began having an affair, Since that time, she has been pumping money into his company.
The payments between the Minneapolis Democratic congresswoman and Tim Mynett prompted at least one ethics complaint lodged by his ex-wife during their divorce proceedings. This is Omar’s second marriage to someone who was not her brother.In the divorce proceedings Mynett’s former wife said that his consulting business was nearly broke. It seems to have improved quite a bit thanks to the infusion of campaign cash from Omar.
During the divorce Omar denied having an affair with Mynett even though they had both been leaving the same address in Washington. Shortly after both divorces were final Omar and Mynett were married.
If the FEC does decide to investigate, the onus will be on Omar and Mynett to prove that the campaign is paying him a reasonable market-based rate and that the arrangement is “not a pretext to fluff up their income,” said Mitchell, a partner at Foley & Lardner.
“It’s not a good practice,” she added.
In a series of tweets in March after her third wedding, Omar defended herself against claims of impropriety and attacked the media for “amplifying baseless claims” and “misinformation of rightwing Twitter.”
“We consulted with a top FEC campaign attorney to ensure there were no possible legal issues with our relationship. We were told this is not uncommon and that no, there weren’t,” she wrote.
“As a family, we are committed to the practice of joy, compassion and love in our politics. And we are giving ourselves the permission to be happy and hope others will as well.”