Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) on Wednesday called allegations that she married her brother “insane,” while stopping short of completely ruling out the possibility that she and her ex-husband could be related.
“Not to my knowledge,” Omar told MS NOW’s Chris Hayes when asked whether there was any “weird kernel of truth” behind the claim that she had married her brother.
The allegations, which date back roughly a decade, claim that Omar married her ex-husband, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, in an effort to help him obtain a green card. Omar said the story began on a “Somali blog” before being amplified by “right-wing conspiracy theorists.” Her comments came in her first interview since federal agents raided her Washington, DC, home last week.
“Somebody put in there that, you know, he had to have been my brother or something to that effect,” the Minnesota Democrat said.
Omar said bloggers “went and, like, found random people who are like … ‘She introduced him to us and said he was her brother,’” adding that the claim was “insane.”
The congresswoman also described herself as “working class” and living “paycheck to paycheck” when asked about her finances. The question followed the release of documents suggesting that she and her husband had a combined net worth of about $30 million—an amount Omar later said was reported in error and revised downward.
“I have a Toyota Camry that’s from 2016. It’s our only car. I rent my DC place and my Minneapolis place,” she told Hayes. “I mean, I don’t know, that sounds like not the majority of Congress, but there’s some of us that don’t come from wealth and don’t have wealth.”
Omar indicated that she does not plan to continue living in the Washington home where Homeland Security Investigations agents executed a federal search warrant last week.
“I can’t continue to live there, so we have to figure out where to move to,” she said. Omar explained that her address had become public and that, amid the death threats she faces, it was no longer practical to have her children visit while worrying that people could track them.
The “Squad” congresswoman has kept a low profile since agents obtained and executed the search warrant last Monday.
In her first on-camera comments since the search, Omar urged supporters to donate to her reelection campaign. She said the funds would help her “fight Trump and his administration for trying to intimidate me and so many other people right before the midterm elections.”
In the one-minute video, filmed inside the back of a moving vehicle and posted on social media, Omar accused the president of “running scared.”
Homeland Security Investigations agents searched the residence Omar shares with her husband, Tim Mynett, as part of an investigation into alleged immigration fraud.
Agents seized Omar’s cellphone, personal computers and passport, among other items, during the search.
The investigation is being led by the Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office and may involve possible false statements on immigration documents concerning Omar’s birth date, according to sources familiar with the case who spoke to The Post.
More than a dozen federal grand jury subpoenas have been issued in connection with the investigation, including subpoenas directed to Omar’s relatives, the Wall Street Journal reported last week.
A source said last week that if the Somali-born congresswoman obtained citizenship by concealing a material fact or willfully misrepresenting information—either herself or through her father, Nur Omar Mohamed—on immigration paperwork, the Trump administration would seek to denaturalize and deport her.
President Trump has claimed that Omar could face prison time if she is found to have committed immigration fraud.
“She could go to jail,” Trump said of Omar on Tuesday. “They keep talking about deportation.”
Omar has denied committing immigration fraud.
The Minnesota Democrat maintains she became a citizen at age 17 through her father, who became a naturalized citizen in 2000, five years after emigrating to the US.
A separate probe related to the congresswoman and her husband’s finances is being run out of the Washington, DC, US Attorney’s Office.
Omar has denied any wrongdoing related to her finances, as well.
This is a breaking story. Please check back for updates.
