Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar probably doesn’t care much about the fact that many of her colleagues in the House lost their seats or that the ...
Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar probably doesn’t care much about the fact that many of her colleagues in the House lost their seats or that the Democrat party is currently in the midsts of an internal war over how far left they’re allowed to go.
Why wouldn’t she care about these otherwise crucial, inner-party issues? It’s simple, because at the end of the day, the 2020 election made her rich. Filthy rich.
According to Fox News, the young lawmaker reportedly paid out a staggering $2.8 million to her husband’s political consulting firm — and that figure was only from the 2019-2020 election cycle.
Her husband, Tim Mynett, owns E Street Group LLC, a firm that specializes in things like video production, video editing, cable advertising and other digital media-related services for political campaigns.
Data from the Federal Election Commission clearly shows that from the beginning of 2019 until July 2020, Omar’s campaign dumped a whopping $1.6 million into her husband’s business. After that, records show that she paid the family firm another $1.1 million with an extra $27,000 shortly after.
Naturally, Omar generated a lot of controversy over using her husband’s firm for services that could be provided by one of dozens — or hundreds — of similar firms available for hire. Instead of bypassing that controversy by utilizing a firm with which she’s not directly connected, Omar instead hired her husband because at the end of the day, it was a golden opportunity to use campaign cash to line her bank account.
Should that be illegal? Yes, definitely. But thanks to an antiquated, 1960s federal anti-nepotism statute, members of Congress can’t hire family members for government jobs, but it doesn’t prohibit family members from doing “campaign work,” making her slick system of legally funneling millions to her husband’s business perfectly legal, for now.
Even some Democrats think the practice should be against the law. Former Minnesota Democrat candidate and attorney Richard Painter said “it should not be allowed,” adding that “it’s a horrible idea to allow it, given the amount of money that goes into these campaigns from special interests.”
Omar has been called out on her shifty scheme on numerous occasions, one which even prompted her to defend the practice earlier this year on Twitter.
“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,” she wrote in a series of tweets in March.
What Omar does to pad her bank account is one of the key reasons why Americans detest most members of Congress. It shouldn’t be a surprise at this point how many lawmakers enter Congress with virtually no money and several years later end up shockingly wealthy.
It’s a disgusting reality and more work needs to be done to put an end to it. Lawmakers are elected to work for the benefit of the People, not to benefits themselves.
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