Ilhan Omar holds telling meeting on first day back at Capitol

As House Democrats returned to Washington to assess how they would use their newly won congressional powers, embattled Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar was focused on something else – herself.

On Tuesday, Omar spent more than two hours in her congressional office, closeted with high-profile attorneys Amy Jeffress and Joshua Matz, according to Fox News.

The attorneys – both of whom have handled cases for high-flying Democrats including former President Joe Biden – were mum about revelations that long before President Donald Trump came into office, the Obama and Biden administrations were looking into the extent to which Omar may have played fast and loose with the truth on her citizenship forms and the issue of her alleged marriage to her brother.

Omar emerged to be asked if she was concerned the investigation could hamstring her ability to represent her constituents.

“I am not,” Omar said, according to Fox.

The response to other questions was a smile and a wave as she and her husband strolled away from reporters.

In 2019, Republican state lawmakers from Minnesota asked the Internal Revenue Service to “conduct a detailed reexamination” of Omar’s tax filings after a state panel said that she filed joint tax returns in 2014 and 2015 with a man to whom she was not married, according to Fox News.

The Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board filed a report saying Omar filed joint tax returns in 2014 and 2015 with Ahmed Hirsi while legally married to Ahmed Nur Said Elmi. Elmi is reputed to be Omar’s brother.

The tax issue came up as the board examined whether a $1,500 campaign expense for legal fees was actually for Omar personally and not her campaign.

The board ruled against Omar and ordered that the $1,500 be paid to Omar’s committee.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has said the federal investigation into Omar has been sent to the Department of Justice and is a “large case” targeting multiple people.

The extent of the questions surrounding Omar includes whether she has been using a false name. The Justice Department called the “squad” member “Congresswoman Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, a/k/a Ilhan Abdullahi Omar” in a recent court filing, as noted by the New York Post.

Scott W. Johnson, a retired Minneapolis attorney who has been trying to get to the bottom of the tangled tale of Omar’s alleged marriage to her brother, told the newspaper, “The whole thing is a red flag.”

“Questions should be asked. She’s never answered them,” Johnson said.

AJ Kern, who once ran for Congress against Omar, said fraud is piled on top of fraud.

“I think it’s pretty clear she married her brother and committed immigration fraud,” Kern said, noting that the question of possible immigration fraud is of major importance.

The Constitution requires that members of Congress be U.S. citizens for at least seven years before they are sworn in to office.

“If the evidence seems to be pointing to the fact that she never obtained citizenship, Congress is failing to do their job. If we’ve had a foreign nationalist occupying a seat in Congress, that’s a problem,” Kern said.

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