Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) took to Twitter this week to “clear the air” regarding her marriage to Tim Mynett, a political consultant whose firm has received close to $600,000 from his wife’s campaign committee.
Omar denied claims that she was in a relationship with Mynett last year, but recently announced on Instagram that they are now married.
As The Minnesota Sun reported, Omar’s campaign committee has paid E Street Group LLC, Mynett’s consulting firm, a total of $587,000 between August 2018 and the end of 2019. Her involvement with Mynett prompted a national nonprofit to file an FEC complaint against her, which claimed that the she used campaign funds for “romantic companionship.”
But in a recent statement posted to Twitter, Omar said she and Mynett “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 said.
My relationship with Tim began long after this work started.
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.
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) March 17, 2020
She noted that Mynett and Will Hailer, the founders of E Street Group, have a long history of working with Minnesota Democrats, particularly Attorney General Keith Ellison.
“E Street isn’t just a consulting company to our campaign, they specialize in Minnesota and are essential to the work we and other campaigns do every day. Between design, digital ad creation and buys, social media and email content creation, mailers, fundraising, video production and political support, eight or more people could be doing campaign work for us on a given day,” said Omar. “If the trolls looked at our campaign finance reports, they would see a substantial portion is for digital buys, print and advertising which are costs that get passed on.”
eStreet isn’t just a consulting company to our campaign, they specialize in MN and are essential to the work we and other campaigns do every day.
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) March 17, 2020
Omar said her campaign pays “fair market value for these services” and claimed her relationship with Mynett “began long after this work started.”
“As a family, we are committed to the practice of joy, compassion and love in our politics. And we are giving ourselves the permission to be happy and hope others will as well,” she continued. “It’s disappointing that reporters would rather amplify the baseless claims and misinformation of right-wing Twitter instead of talking to actual experts on the law. This is everything wrong with media coverage in 2020.”
It’s disappointing that reporters would rather amplify the baseless claims and misinformation of rightwing Twitter instead of talking to actual experts on the law.
This is everything wrong with media coverage in 2020.
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) March 17, 2020
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Anthony Gockowski is managing editor of The Minnesota Sun and The Ohio Star. Follow Anthony on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Ilhan Omar and Tim Mynett” by CAIR.
