by Andrew Kerr
Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar’s political campaign ramped up its spending to a firm owned by the man she’s alleged to be having an extramarital affair within the third quarter of 2019, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) records.
Omar’s campaign disbursed about $146,713 to Democratic consultant Tim Mynett’s E Street Group LLC between the beginning of July and the end of September, according to records the campaign filed with the FEC on Tuesday. The payments were primarily for digital advertising and consulting services, however, about $3,000 were payments for “travel expenses.”
The third-quarter spending figures from Omar’s campaign represent a significant uptick in the spending it has dedicated to Mynett’s firm. In the 10-month period prior, from August 2018 to June 2019, her total spending with the firm was $223,000.
About 30% of Omar’s spending in the third quarter went to Mynett’s firm, according to The Washington Free Beacon, which first spotted Omar’s filing Tuesday.
Omar began reporting payments for E Street Group’s travel expenses in April, around the same time Mynett’s wife alleged in a divorce filing that he had admitted to having an affair with the congresswoman, the Daily Caller News Foundation previously reported.
Mynett’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,” his wife’s divorce filing stated.
Omar faces an FEC complaint alleging she illegally used campaign funds to pursue a romantic affair with Mynett.
Omar and Tim Mynett have been pictured together at multiple events in recent months. Most notably, the pair was pictured sitting together at a fundraiser for CAIR in late March where the congresswoman described the 9/11 terrorist attacks as “some people did something.”
Omar’s attorneys dismissed the National Legal and Policy Center’s FEC complaint, calling it a baseless “political ploy.”
Omar denied in a late August interview with a local news reporter that she was having an extramarital affair.
“Are you separated from your husband? Are you dating someone?” WCCO reporter Esme Murphy asked her.
“No, I am not,” Omar replied. “And like I said yesterday, I have no interest in allowing the conversation about my personal life to continue.”
But in early October, Omar filed for divorce from her husband, Ahmed Hirsi.
“There has been an irretrievable breakdown of the marriage relationship,” Omar’s divorce filing stated.
The Omar campaign did not immediately return a request for comment.
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Andrew Kerr is a reporter for the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Ilhan Omar and Tim Mynett” by CAIR.
