The Powerline blog claimed in an investigative report published Thursday that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) not only married her brother, but also received asylum as a child after her family used a false name.
The extensive blog post was written by David Sternberg, who did much of the initial reporting on Omar that was re-traced by the Minneapolis Star Tribune after a state ethics investigation revealed last month that she had filed joint tax returns for two years with one man while married to another.
Sternberg claims that Omar is actually one of five siblings in the Elmi family from Somalia. Three of the siblings were granted asylum in the United Kingdom, while two were granted asylum in the United States, including the father, Sternberg alleges.
He further alleges: “The Omar family is a second, unrelated family which was being granted asylum by the United States. The Omars allowed Ilhan, her genetic sister Sahra, and her genetic father Nur Said to use false names to apply for asylum as members of the Omar family.”
Sternberg also alleges that Rep. Omar married her alleged brother, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, in 2009: he had already reportedly been granted asylum in the UK. Following the marriage, he allegedly went on to study at North Dakota State University.
Elmi allegedly lived with her and with Ahmed Hirsi, the father of her children and the man to whom she says she had been married in an Islamic ceremony in 2002, while he studied. He allegedly left the U.S. shortly thereafter.
Omar reportedly divorced Elmi in 2017 and legally married Hirsi a short time later. However, she filed joint tax returns with Hirsi for 2014 and 2015 while still legally married to Elmi.
Omar paid a lawyer to help her deal with the situation, the state ethics investigation confirmed. The campaign finance violation occurred when she used campaign funds to pay the lawyer for what was a non-campaign-related purpose.
Sternberg notes that Omar was 12 years old at the time her family entered the U.S., and so “had no say” in the matter. However, he adds, she is now under scrutiny for later actions as an adult, including her marriages, tax filings, and campaign expenditures.
The Daily Mail, reporting Wednesday on the allegations about Omar’s marriage, noted that the official who performed Omar’s legal marriage to Elmi was a Christian minister.
In the past, Omar has called allegations that she married her brother “disgusting lies.” She also claimed that accusations of campaign finance violations against her, some of which were later vindicated, were motivated by anti-Muslim prejudice.
Breitbart News reached out to Rep. Omar’s office for comment Thursday and received no response.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He earned an A.B. in Social Studies and Environmental Science and Public Policy from Harvard. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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