OPINION:
Rep. Ilhan Omar, according to TMZ, has filed for divorce from Ahmed Hirsi, the father of her three children.
And all in the rest of the country go: What’s going on with this Muslim Democratic congresswoman from Minnesota, anyway? Her personal life doesn’t just seem a personal mess. It’s also, legally speaking, a curious mix of question marks and asterisks and puzzling twists and turns.
This will be her second separation from Hirsi.
It comes after she denied separating from him a few weeks ago.
It comes after Washington, D.C.-area’s Beth Jordan Mynett, in divorce papers, accused her husband, Tim, of leaving her for Omar, for whom he provided political consulting services.
“The parties physically separated on or about April 7, 2019, when Defendant told Plaintiff that he was romantically involved with and in love with another woman, Ilhan Omar,” court documents stated at the time.
It comes after many in the media and politics — and country — have been wondering about the true nature of Omar’s romantic partnerships, for legal reasons, no less. As TMZ wrote: “Her divorce adds another layer to her complicated history with her now estranged husband, Hirsi. They reportedly married in a religious ceremony in 2002 — but the union was not recognized legally. The couple [then] had two children together, but separated in 2008.”
Omar then married another guy, Ahmed Elmi, in 2009 in Minneapolis. In 2011, he returned to the United Kingdom, and in 2017, the two legally divorced.
Then Omar married Hirsi — “legally this time,” as TMZ noted — the following year.
And now, they’re divorcing.
Omar filed the paperwork in court on Friday.
One of her spokespeople told TMZ: “As will all marriages, this is intensely personal and a difficult time for their family. For years, Ilhan and Ahmed have been the object of speculation and innuendo from political opponents and the media.”
Umm, yes. That’s ’cause Omar never did put completely to rest accusations like this, as reported by Business Insider in July: “Conservative bloggers have for years claimed that Omar’s second husband, a British citizen named Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, is her brother and that she married him to help him fraudulently gain a US green card.”
The accusation is still that: an accusation without proof.
But: “Omar has still not explained some puzzling discrepancies and inconsistencies in her marriage history that raise questions about her marriages and have breathed life into allegations of fraud,” Business Insider wrote.
And now the Federal Election Commission might be doing some snooping into her background. For more fraud.
“Federal campaign finance records show that Omar’s campaign has paid nearly $230,000 since 2018 to the E. Street Group, a political strategy firm of which the lawmaker’s alleged married lover, Tim Mynett, is a partner of,” Breitbart reported in late August.
The National Legal and Policy Center filed a complaint with the FEC, requesting an investigation into the payments.
That’s still up in the air.
But Omar’s personal hasn’t just leaked into her political. It’s flooded. And the fact is when you can’t answer a simple yes or no question like, “Are you married?” — without raising up the red flags — well then, that becomes a red flag in itself.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley.
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