Representative Ilhan Omar’s (D., Minn.) campaigns have, since 2018, disbursed roughly $230,000 to a consulting firm owned by Tim Mynett, a fundraising strategist whose wife accused him of having an affair with Omar in a recent divorce filing obtained by the New York Post.
Omar’s 2018 campaign spent $62,674 on “fundraising consulting” services provided by the E Street Group and the spending has only increased since. The freshman Democrat’s 2020 reelection campaign has, according to FEC data, spent $160,000 on Mynett’s services thus far in 2019, nearly one-third of its total expenditures, despite it being an off year.
Mynett, who has a partnership stake in E Street, told his wife that he had fallen in love with Omar over the months they had been working together and rejected her attempts to salvage their marriage.
“The parties physically separated on or about April 7, 2019, when Defendant told Plaintiff that he was romantically involved with and in love with another woman, Ilhan Omar,” reads the divorce filing, submitted in D.C. court on Tuesday.
Less than one week after Mynett disclosed the affair, Omar’s reelection campaign began paying for Mynett’s travel. Mynett’s wife believes the travel, which has cost the campaign more than 20,000 since April, was not work-related.
“Defendant’s more recent travel and long work hours now appear to be more related to his affair with Rep. Omar than with his actual work commitments,” the divorce filing reads.
The conservative National Legal and Policy Center filed an FEC complaint Wednesday morning alleging that Omar violated the law by funding her romantic partner’s travel.
“If Ilhan for Congress reimbursed Mynett’s LLC for travel so that Rep. Omar would have the benefit of Mynett’s romantic companionship, the expenditures must be considered personal in nature,” NLPC said in its complaint, which was obtained by the Daily Caller.
It’s not the first time Omar has faced FEC violations; she was hit with a $500 fine in June for improperly using campaign funds to travel to a conference in Florida.
Omar has also previously faced questions about her marital history. In 2012, a series of social media posts identified her then-husband, Ahmed Elmi, as her child’s uncle, prompting speculation that she married her brother to skirt U.S. immigration law. She has refused to address the controversy, which gained traction earlier this year after evidence emerged that she likely lied to Minnesota authorities about her knowledge of Elmi’s whereabouts in order to obtain a no-fault divorce. Omar is now married to another man, Ahmed Hirsi.