Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) waved off rumors that she married her brother, replying, “Not to my knowledge,” when asked if she was related to her ex-husband.
Omar married Ahmed Nur Said Elmi in 2009, and they divorced in 2017. The rumor that he was her biological brother, and that they married to fraudulently get him citizenship, has dogged her for years. It gained increasing credence when police raided her Washington, D.C. home on Oct. 12 under a judicially authorized warrant. In an interview with MS Now, Omar discussed the supposed origins of the claim, dismissing it as a conspiracy theory.
“It started with the Somali blog … somebody put in there that. .. he had to have been my brother or something to that effect. And right-wing conspiracy theorists in Minneapolis got a hold of it, and they just kind of went and like found random people who are like, ‘she introduced us, you know, she introduced him to us and said he was her brother,’ which is, you know, insane. I mean… I don’t know those people that they talk about,” Omar said.
When asked in a follow up question if there was any “weird kernel of truth” to the claim she was related to the man in question, Omar replied, “Not to my knowledge.”
Her response was widely mocked by conservatives online. One commenter referred to Omar as “The Mogadishu Candidate,” parodying the famous movie and novel, The Manchurian Candidate.
Despite her denials, legal experts have warned that her case is looking increasingly worrying.
“I can’t say it looks particularly great for Congresswoman Omar at this moment,” Tom Dupree, a constitutional law attorney and former deputy assistant attorney general, told NewsNation on Wednesday, after the court filing that granted the search warrant was released to the public.
Officials have reportedly obtained her DNA in connection with the case, the New York Post reported, though Omar said in the interview that nothing with her DNA was taken during the search. She said the agents “went room by room” and “took 17 items.”
DID ILHAN OMAR MARRY HER OWN BROTHER? THE CLAIMS EXPLAINED
Among the things taken in the raid were her daughter’s old cellphone, her current husband’s notebooks, a Somali phrase book, and a camera. The congresswoman said she would have to move residences in Washington, D.C., as she now feels unsafe.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin suggested last month that the agency has actionable evidence to believe that the congresswoman, a naturalized U.S. citizen since 2000, married her own brother as part of an immigration scheme. Several Trump administration officials have backed this up, including President Donald Trump, who suggested she could soon be deported.
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
