by Frank Holmes, reporter
Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., has only been in Congress for two years, but she just accomplished something few other congressmen have ever achieved.
The far-left Democrat has had a piece of legislation named after her—but it’s not quite the honor you might think.
The Oversight for Members And Relatives Act, or “OMAR Act,” would stop members of Congress from engaging in sleazy financial shenanigans like those they accuse Omar of pulling.
“For too long, lawmakers of both political parties have engaged in the ethically dubious practice of pocketing campaign funds by ‘hiring’ their spouses and laundering the money as campaign related expenses,” said Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-Wis., who co-sponsored the bill.
And in this, Omar is in a league of her own.
All told, Omar has steered $2.9 million to a campaign firm run by her latest husband, Tim Mynett.
That’s almost 7 out of every 10 dollars Omar’s campaign spent in the third quarter of the 2020 election season.
That’s also 80 percent of Mynett’s political business, according to an analysis from The Washington Free Beacon.
Omar reportedly had an affair with Mynett while married to her last husband—and their reported sexual relationship led to whispers of a kickback deal.
Instead of backing down, Omar kept the money flowing—to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars every few months to Mynett’s business, the E Street Group.
Lots of congressmen—especially Democrats—shuffle campaign cash to their own families.
Her fellow “Squad” member, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, saw a left-wing group called Brand New Congress funnel her campaign money to her boyfriend, Riley Roberts.
Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., has given her own daughter more than $1 million dollars to pump out campaign mailers with her endorsed list of candidates.
For socialists, these people certainly seem interested in chasing the Almighty Dollar.
But those other cases are nothing next to Omar. She paid her hubby’s firm more than all members of Congress paid to their family members during the 2012 election combined, according to the bill’s sponsors. No wonder they named the bill in her “honor.”
That lets her campaign donors have sway over the family, since they know their campaign donations will make a round trip, from the campaign (Omar) to the consultant (Mynett), and back to Omar’s home.
“Loopholes that allow members of Congress to funnel campaign funds to their spouses are despicable and erode trust in our government,” said Rep. Mike Gallagher, the bill’s other co-sponsor, who is also a Wisconsin Republican.
The OMAR Act is introduced by two Republicans, but the idea’s origins could mean that Omar is in hot water with her own party.
Rep. Adam Schiff of California—yes, that Adam Schiff—introduced a bill in 2007 that would ban family members from having any role in campaigns.
Schiff said at the time that the country needs his Campaign Expenditure Transparency Act, because “there have been too many reports of corruption and abuse in Congress over the last few years.”
“A particularly egregious example of this practice involves the spouse of an elected official earning commissions for fundraising activity,” according to the 2007 press release. “In those situations, the candidate or elected official personally pockets a percentage of all campaign funds through the spouse’s commissions.”
That puts Omar on very thin ice.
She’s already guilty of a practice that Democrats tried to stamp out…and those Democrats still serve in the Congress with her.
How can Adam Schiff say the Republican bill is wrong when he introduced the idea 13 years ago?
And if he does sign onto the bill, that means the Democrats’ most prominent intelligence “expert” says Omar has perpetrated “egregious” actions to enrich her own family.
Either way, it’s going to leave Omar, Schiff, or both with a ton of egg on their face.
The pressure is so serious that Omar announced she’s “voluntarily” cutting ties with her husband’s business… which puts Mynett in a major financial bind.
He just launched a new side hustle of promoting wine and alcoholic beverages just to make ends meet.
Being cut off from your wife’s campaign cash? It’s enough to drive Mynett to drink.
Frank Holmes is a veteran journalist and an outspoken conservative that talks about the news that was in his weekly article, “On The Holmes Front.”