Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) must repay thousands of dollars after Minnesota campaign finance officials charged her with violating multiple state campaign finance laws.
The Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board ruled Thursday that Omar must reimburse her former campaign committee nearly $3,500 for illegal expenses related to personal trips and personal tax return assistance during her term as a Minnesota state representative. The first-term lawmaker was also fined $500. Under Minnesota law, campaign trips must be related to public service.
The board’s report further reveals that Omar filed joint tax returns with her current husband while she was reportedly still married to her previous spouse, raising questions from conservatives about possible tax fraud.
Omar violated campaign finance laws
“Rep. Omar must personally reimburse the Omar committee $3,469.23,” the board’s report concludes. “This reimbursement payment is the total amount of campaign funds that were used for purposes not permitted by statute in 2016 and 2017. Rep. Omar must provide documentation within 30 days from the date of this order showing the deposit of the reimbursement into the Omar committee’s account.”
The board found that Omar used campaign funds to travel to Boston to give a speech at a political rally, to travel to Chicago to accept an award and attend a fundraising luncheon, and to pay for a hotel in Washington, D.C, where she sat for an interview with the United Nations Foundation’s Girl UP conference. Omar must also pay a $500 fine to the state of Minnesota for an illegal trip to Florida, where she accepted an honorarium.
The board’s investigation started with a 2018 complaint from Republican state Rep. Steve Drazkowski, who alleged that Omar used $2,250 in campaign funds to pay for divorce proceedings. The board’s investigation found that the $2,250 was actually reimbursement to two law firms for legal services on Omar’s immigration records and tax returns.
“The 2016 payment of $2,250 from the Omar committee to the Kjellberg Law Office was not a payment for Rep. Omar’s subsequent marital dissolution,” the report found.
Those two payments were made in relation to a “crisis committee” that Omar’s campaign formed to respond to allegations that she married her brother as part of an “immigration scheme.” The board found that the $1,500 Omar’s campaign spent on fixing an issue with her tax returns benefitted Omar personally “regardless of her status as a candidate” and therefore must be returned.
The board ordered Omar to file an amended report with more information about the law firm payments.
Tax fraud?
The report further reveals that Omar and her current husband, Ahmed Hirsi, filed joint tax returns in 2014 and 2015 when Omar was reportedly still married to her first husband, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi. Omar’s first marriage did not formally end in divorce until 2017. Conservatives including Michelle Malkin took the report’s finding as possible evidence of tax fraud.
“Time to get federal IRS officials involved?” asked conservative blogger Michelle Malkin. “What say you all?”
The board’s report notes, “The crisis committee had Frederick & Rosen prepare releases for Rep. Omar and Mr. Hirsi to sign in order for Frederick & Rosen to obtain Rep. Omar’s and Mr. Hirsi’s filed joint tax returns for 2014 and 2015.”
Omar responds
In a statement, Omar said that she is “glad this process is complete” and that she will cooperate with the board. But Omar also claimed that “none of the money was used for personal use, as was initially alleged,” which flatly contradicting the board’s findings. The report found that there was “some personal benefit to Rep. Omar” from the $1,500 that she spent on help with her tax returns.
“The invoices also showed that the accounting firm of Frederick & Rosen, Ltd. had billed the Kjellberg Law Office $1,500 for services for ‘Hirsi/Omar 2015 & 2014’ on September 1, 2016. While the initial purpose of retaining Frederick & Rosen may have been to obtain and review financial records, Ms. Kjellberg stated that there was some personal benefit to Rep. Omar from the services as there was an issue with her tax returns that needed to be corrected regardless of her status as a candidate,” the report finds.
Drazkowski called Omar a “serial violator of the law.” “This just really adds on to the litany of disrespect for the law that Rep. Omar has,” Drazkowski told the Washington Examiner. “You have eight violations here.”
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