Federal election watchdogs are being asked to determine whether newly divorced congresswoman Ilhan Omar took her lover on trips paid by her campaign.
Peter Flaherty, chairman of the conservative National Legal and Policy Center last month filed an amended version of a complaint he had lodged earlier into Omar's campaign spending, following DailyMail.com's revelation she was having an affair with her finance chief Tim Mynett.
Omar's divorce from husband Ahmed Hirsi became final this week. Mynett's wife Beth has also filed for divorce in the wake of the affair.
Flaherty is asking the Federal Election Commission to investigate payments made by the Minnesota congresswoman's campaign, Ilhan for Congress to Mynett's company, The E Street Group.
Ilhan's campaign paid Mynett's company more than $369,000 since hiring him in August of 2018 and payments run up until this past September. Nearly $25,000 is labeled as travel expenses, according to records filed to the FEC.
Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar is facing an investigation over taking her lover Tim Mynett on trips that were paid for by her campaign. The conservative National Legal and Policy Center last month filed an amended version of a complaint lodged earlier into Omar's campaign spending
Ilhan for Congress paid the E Street Group more than $222,000 between August last year and July when DailyMail.com revealed the couple's affair
'If Ilhan for Congress reimbursed Mynett's LLC for travel so that Rep. Omar would have the benefit of Mynett's romantic companionship, the expenditure must be considered personal in nature,' he wrote.
'Federal Election Commission regulations prohibit the use of campaign funds for personal expenses collateral to travel…unless personal funds are used to reimburse the committee,' he added.
But whether the probe ever gets underway is up in the air due to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's refusal to schedule hearings to confirm new members of the agency, tasked with enforcing campaign finance laws.
'This is a matter of frustration,' Peter Flaherty, the man who brought the complaint against Omar told DailyMail.com.
Ilhan for Congress paid The E Street Group more than $222,000 between August last year and July when DailyMail.com exclusively revealed the affair between Omar and Mynett.
It paid him a whopping $92,746 in July, and in August and September the company pocketed another $54,000, according to figures filed with the FEC. She has until November 20 to file her October figures.
'If you total her expenditure, about one-third of it went to E Street,' Flaherty told DailyMail.com. He also said the committee erred by not splitting travel expenses from fundraising.
'A disbursement can be a ''travel'' expense or a ''fundraising'' expense but it cannot be both, even if the travel is in conjunction with fundraising activities.'
He claimed both Omar's campaign and Mynett's company 'either continue to disregard the law or misunderstand it.'
Ilhan's campaign paid Mynett's company more than $369,000 since hiring him in August of 2018, up until this past September
Nearly $25,000 is labeled as travel expenses, according to records
'There continues to be reporting problems,' Flaherty told DailyMail.com. 'But the bigger issue is her veracity and credibility.
'She said she wasn't having an affair but now, based on DailyMail.com's reporting it looks like she wasn't telling the truth.'
David Mitrani, a lawyer who acts for both Omar's campaign and the E Street Group originally dismissed Flaherty's complaint, calling it 'nothing more than blustering to attempt to create the appearance of legal jeopardy when there is none.'
'The parties have at all times complied with federal campaign finance law,' Mitrani said.
Whether the FEC actually considers Flaherty's complaint is open to question as it does not have enough members to reach a quorum after vice chairman Matthew Peterson resigned in August. President Donald Trump has nominated one new member but McConnell has not scheduled a confirmation hearing.
Omar's divorce from Hirsi was finalized just 30 days after she filed in early October. She filed after DailyMail.com had revealed she had moved out of the family home in Minneapolis and into a penthouse apartment.
We then showed a video of her and Mynett leaving an out-of-the way restaurant in the Playa Del Rey section of Los Angeles after a romantic meal there. She had been in California to give a speech.
She and her ex will share joint custody of their three children, aged 16, 13, and 7, but it's noted the kids will mainly live in Washington D.C. and attend school there, according to court records.
Omar, 38, claimed in divorce documents that there had been an 'irretrievable breakdown of the marriage relationship.'
Omar agreed to pay for the children's travel expenses to get back to Minnesota when they visit Hirsi.
Mynett was seen whisking mom-of-three Omar around DC in his bright blue Ford Mustang. Insiders have gone so far as to suggest the pair will get married when their respective separations are finalized
The source added: 'The suspicion is that when their divorces are finalized they will quietly decide to make it official. Maybe then the lies, the hypocrisy, all the sneaking around will finally come to an end.' Pictured: Mynett with his arm dangling a cigarette out of his window while Omar hops into his waiting car on September 26
The exes will also keep their own cars and own bank accounts. Neither will have to pay spousal support.
In a statement, Omar's lawyer said: 'Anyone going through a divorce is glad when it is over and this case is no exception.'
Omar first married Hirsi in an Islamic ceremony in 2002 when she was 19.
Six years later, after two children, the couple said they had 'reached an impasse in our life together,' and divorced.
The following year, Omar married Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, a British citizen, just two weeks after he entered the United States.
He has been identified as her brother by many media outlets, though due to a lack of records in their war-torn country of birth that has not been proven.
That marriage lasted just two years but it was enough to allow Elmi to study alongside his new wife at North Dakota State University.
Records suggest that Omar, Elmi and Hirsi all lived together for at least part of that time.
Omar then had a third child with Hirsi in 2012 and in 2015 she filed a joint tax return with him — even though she was still legally married to Elmi.
She finally divorced Elmi in 2017 and married Hirsi in a civil ceremony the following year.
But in July, DailyMail.com revealed that Omar had split again with Hirsi and moved out of their family home and into her new penthouse apartment.
Omar's divorce from Hirsi was finalized just 30 days after she filed in early October. She filed after DailyMail.com had revealed she had moved out of the family home in Minneapolis and into a penthouse apartment
In 2009, Omar married Elmi, a British citizen, just two weeks after he entered the US. He has been identified as her brother by many media outlets, but that has not been proven. That marriage lasted just two years but it was enough to allow Elmi to study alongside his new wife at North Dakota State University
In August, after DailyMail.com reported that Omar had been seen holding hands with 38-year-old Mynett in the Caffe Pinguine and spending time with him, his wife Beth (pictured together) filed for divorce
In August, after DailyMail.com reported that Omar had been seen holding hands with 38-year-old Mynett in the Caffe Pinguine and spending time with him, his wife Beth filed for divorce.
Beth Mynett revealed her fears that her husband's affair could have been going on for the past year in her nine-page divorce filing.
Beth, who has a 13-year-old-son with Mynett, describes in the papers how her cheating partner made a 'shocking declaration of love' for the leftist firebrand.
She said her husband took their son to meet Omar at the Mynett family's favorite restaurant in Washington, D.C., when the reproductive health expert was out of town.
Despite being named in the Mynetts' divorce proceedings, Omar continued to dodge questions about her tangled private life.
She denied being separated from her husband Ahmed Hirsi then refused to comment further on 'personal matters', according to Esme Murphy, a reporter with Minneapolis-based WCCO-TV.
In October, DailyMail.com revealed that Omar and Mynett were not only dating, but living together 'on and off' at a secret DC apartment, while plotting romantic vacations to Jamaica and making plans for a long-term future together.
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