On August 27, Dr. Beth Mynett filed for divorce from Democratic political consultant Tim Mynett. Dr. Mynett’s filing -- submitted under penalty of perjury -- included claims that raised the gossipy open secret of Rep. Ilhan Omar’s extramarital affair with Tim Mynett to a more serious matter of public corruption.

The divorce filing suggested serial campaign finance violations by Rep. Omar. (Questionable finances have been a recurring theme with Omar; in June of this year she was found guilty of a half-dozen or so violations.) The divorce filing also included one disturbing allegation about Rep. Omar’s character and judgment.

For a couple days, Dr. Mynett’s filing drew the expected attention from local and national media. However, it did not draw their expected effort or competency.

On the evening of the 27th, Minneapolis CBS affiliate WCCO aired an exclusive interview with Rep. Omar. WCCO’s Esme Murphy asked Omar if she had separated from her husband Ahmed Hirsi -- described that week by multiple outlets as a senior policy aide to Minneapolis City Councilwoman Alondra Cano -- and was now dating someone else.

Rep. Omar answered:  “No, I am not. As I said yesterday, I have no interest in allowing the conversation about my personal life to continue and so I have no desire to discuss it.”

Remarkably, media generally accepted both Omar’s denial and her framing of the story as being limited to her “personal life.”

Further, no outlet investigated one conspicuous matter of public interest raised by the story: “Senior Policy Aide” to a Minneapolis City Council member is a taxpayer-funded position.

Certainly, Ahmed Hirsi’s work for Councilwoman Cano’s might be affected by corruption issues involving his wife.

During the summer, sources* within the Minneapolis Somali community informed me that Rep. Ilhan Omar has been using financial leverage to prevent Ahmed Hirsi from filing for divorce.

Ahmed Hirsi’s employment with Councilwoman Cano was quietly terminated months ago: June 14.

The June 14 termination of Ahmed Hirsi’s employment is public data. Anyone can verify this information by filing a request with the City of Minneapolis City Clerk.

My sources stated that Ahmed Hirsi was terminated following a request by Rep. Omar. They added that Omar’s motivation for the request was to force Hirsi to become reliant upon her assets and income.

For the majority of 2019, Ahmed Hirsi has reportedly borne the responsibility of raising the three children he has with Omar. (One source used the term “abandoned” to describe Ilhan’s recent share of the parenting.) Since June 14, Hirsi does not appear to have a reliable source of income.

Meanwhile, Rep. Omar currently draws a $174,000 Congressional salary, and reportedly received a $250,000 book advance in January.

-------------------------

Scott Johnson’s September 3 article at Powerline, “Ilhan Omar Feels the Heat”, included similar information regarding Omar pressuring Hirsi to remain her legal husband.