NYT Points to 'Murky' Detail in 'Ilhan Omar' Brother-Marriage Fraud Probe: The Man Who Married Her
For The New York Times, it might be a “murky” detail, but for Americans paying attention, it’s one more brick in an ever-growing case that a sitting U.S. congresswoman is guilty of fraud.
In a lengthy report published Thursday, the liberals’ “newspaper of record” took a look at the messy marriage history of Rep. Ilhan Omar.
It came away with little that would comfort Omar’s supporters, but one particular point stood out.
The Minnesota Democrat with the questionable background is the subject of longstanding speculation — and possible legal hazard — that she married her own brother in a fraudulent attempt to gain him an American green card.
That “marriage” took place in 2009, eight years after Omar had married her first husband, Ahmed Hirsi, in an “Islamic ceremony” that was not legally recognized, The New York Times reported, citing Omar’s memoir, “This Is What America Looks Like.”
In the book, Omar identified the second husband only as a British man, the newspaper reported. She also described the move as a matter of impulse during a bad time in her life.
Then came one of the more notable paragraphs in the story:
“Several aspects of the marriage to Mr. Elmi have long been murky. For instance, although Ms. Omar is an observant Muslim, the couple’s marriage certificate was signed by a Christian pastor rather than an imam.”
Murky? It sure is murky that an observant Muslim like Omar would find a Christian pastor to sign her marriage certificate. Why not an imam?
Or, if the mysterious second husband was of the secular variety, why not a justice of the peace?
Other details not included in The New York Times report add credence to the idea that the marriage was a sham.
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For one thing, the second husband, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, was widely known not to be exactly a ladies’ man — other than reportedly dressing like one on occasion.
(On Thursday, the New York Post reported that Elmi had identified himself in an academic paper published in August as a “gay man of the East African diaspora.”)
For another, Omar filed joint tax returns with her first husband, Hirsi, in 2014 and 2015, while supposedly married to Elmi.
Omar and Elmi did not legally divorce until 2017, the newspaper recounted.
Omar then married Hirsi again — legally this time — in 2018, only to divorce him in 2019. (The two had three children together.)
Omar is now married to Tim Mynett, a former Omar political consultant and sometime winery entrepreneur.
(Mynett is also quite Caucasian, indicating that whatever his faults or merits as a man, he’s at least probably not his wife’s blood relative.)
By itself, each part of that history could stand alone as possibly regrettable, but understandable. Men and women have attractions for each other, move on in life, then return, only to move on again.
But the detail about the pastor who signed off on the Omar-Elmi marriage stands out. Why would a vocally Muslim woman accept a Christian clergyman to marry her?
For that matter, why would a flamboyantly homosexual man from East Africa (probably not a practicing Muslim, given some elements of the faith’s views about murdering gay men) go along with it?
With the federal government investigating, the full truth might come out.
There’s no way of knowing at this point in time, with neither Omar nor Elmi talking — at least not talking honestly — but it’s a pretty good guess that it was at least in part because they both knew the marriage itself was a sham.
And whatever details The New York Times finds “murky,” that much, at least, is crystal clear.
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