Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) is severing her financial ties with her husband’s political consulting firm after she reportedly paid nearly $2.8 million towards that firm in the past.
Omar said in an email to supporters Sunday that her campaign was terminating its relationship with the E Street Group to “make sure that anybody who is supporting our campaign with their time or financial support feels there is no perceived issue with that support,” the Star Tribune reported.
The campaign had a lucrative contract with E Street Group LLC, which is owned by Tim Mynett, Omar’s current husband.
Federal Election Commission (FEC) data showed that her campaign reported paying the group more than $1.6 million between the beginning of 2019 to July 22, 2020.
This was on top of another $1.1 million payout in the third quarter alone.
But the payments prompted the National Legal and Policy Center to file a complaint with the FEC alleging that Omar’s campaign had illegally used campaign money to pay for Mynett’s personal travel.
The FEC has not publicly acted on the complaint.
“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,” Omar wrote in the email. “And Tim — beyond his salary at the firm — received no profit whatsoever from the consulting relationship the firm provided.”
Earlier this year, Omar claimed her expenses to E Street Group were legitimate and that her relationship with Mynett began “long after” her campaign made inroads with the firm.
My relationship with Tim began long after this work started.
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.
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) March 17, 2020
Omar and Mynett got married in March, months after they each finalized their divorces with their former spouses.
Thomas Anderson, a spokesperson for the National Legal and Policy Center, said Omar’s response was not enough to address concerns about how the campaign funds were spent.
“We feel Congresswoman Omar is attempting to clean up a mess we laid out in our complaint,” he said.
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