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Records show that E Street, the consulting firm owned by Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar’s husband, Tim Mynett, has collected nearly $1 million total in fees from the congresswoman’s 2018 and 2020 congressional campaign.
At least $292,814.99 of the total $878,930.65 funneled to E Street was paid out this year alone, according to the New York Post. And at least $189,000 of that $292,814.99 was paid out after the two formally tied knots in early March.
“The payments between the Minneapolis Democratic congresswoman and Tim Mynett prompted at least one ethics complaint in 2019,” the Post reported Tuesday.
One of those complaints may be read below:
“Omar is by far the E Street Group’s biggest client, according to Open Secrets data, with nearly one in every three of Omar’s campaign dollars going to her alleged lover’s firm as of last August,” the Post’s report continued.
“The FEC allows lawmakers to hire family members or spouses to work on their campaigns, making the arrangement technically aboveboard, but multiple political experts told The Post Tuesday they believe the practice should be outlawed.”
These experts included Richard W. Painter, who served as the chief ethics lawyer in former President George W. Bush’s administration from 2005 to 2007, and Cleta Mitchell, a D.C.-based expert in political law.
“It should not be allowed. I think it’s a horrible idea to allow it, given the amount of money that goes into these campaigns from special interests,” Painter reportedly said. “We already have enough problems with gifts to campaigns as a quid pro quo for political action.”
“There’s a long line of abuses in this regard where members of Congress will hire family members and pay their family members to do ‘campaign work’ in order to supplement the family income,” Mitchell added.
Peter Flaherty, the head of the conservative government ethics watchdog group known as the National Legal and Policy Center, agreed.
“Omar’s campaign chest is looking more and more like a dowry,” he said in a statement to the Daily Mail in April. “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.”
The Daily Mail predicted E Street was on track to “earn” an estimated $1.16 million from Omar this year alone.
Tom Anderson, also of the NLPC, told The Daily Caller at the time: “We believe Representative Ilhan Omar may have touched the third rail of campaign finance law: disbursing campaign funds for personal use.”
“It’s a brazen act Representative Omar was caught doing before in Minnesota and all of the evidence we’ve seen tells us she’s probably doing it again.”
Omar has of course denied all accusations of impropriety, but her penchant for lying about virtually everything makes it difficult to trust her.
This is what happens when rightwing Twitter trolls are treated as authorities on campaign law.
Let’s clear the air.
1. The gov’t doesn’t fund my campaign. Grassroots donors do.
2. Everything we spend is used for a legitimate expense and paid at fair market value. (Thread) pic.twitter.com/pjBwtfDykz
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) March 17, 2020
Prior to announcing her marriage to Mynett in early March, she’d repeatedly denied being involved with him.
“No, I am not,” she’d confidently declared last August when asked by Minneapolis station WCCO whether she’d separated from her then-husband, Ahmed Hirsi, and was dating somebody else.
Listen (disable your adblocker if the video doesn’t appear):
She’d clearly lied.
Moreover, the congresswoman has a history of fraudulent behavior.
In the summer of 2019, the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board ordered the congresswoman to reimburse her own campaign $3,469.23 and pay a fine of $500 for the crime of misusing campaign funds.
“That includes a payment of $1,500 to a law firm that, her lawyer testified, was related to some corrections made to her personal tax returns that were discovered as part of an inquiry into her financial records by a ‘crisis committee,’” the Star-Tribune reported at the time.
“The balance of the reimbursement is for a handful of travel expenses: to a political rally for a Boston City Council candidate; a leadership conference for girls in Washington, D.C.; a young elected officials’ conference in New York; a human rights luncheon in Chicago; and to a fundraiser for the African Network of Southwest Florida.”
Minnesota Campaign Finance & Public Disclosure Board has released findings into @IlhanMN ‘s shady spending practices in response to state Rep. Steve Drazkowski’s complaints. She has been ordered to pay about $4,000 in reimbursements & fines, plus file amended disclosures. /1
— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) June 6, 2019
Here are the Minnesota Campaign Finance & Public Disclosure Board’s conclusions of law in re. @IlhanMN /2 pic.twitter.com/aKx4hdXEMO
— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) June 6, 2019
And then there’s the notorious lie that she didn’t once purposefully marry her brother to bypass America’s immigration laws.
It’s not clear if the FEC — or any other federal agency, for that matter — will ever take any action against her.
What’s known is that the congresswoman faces four formidable opponents in the upcoming Aug. 11th presidential primary election.
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Vivek@bizpacreview.com
V. Saxena is a staff writer for BizPac Review with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University.
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