Investigation reveals Ilhan Omar violates campaign financing rules as new issues arise over tax returns



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Representative Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., Repeatedly breached state rules when she used campaign funds to pay for her personal trips outside the country. State, as well as to help him prepare his tax returns, and must repay nearly $ 3,500 to his former campaign committee, financing the campaign in Minnesota. officials ruled Thursday.

The Finance and Public Disclosure Committee of the Minnesota Campaign said the first congressman also had to pay the state a $ 500 civil fine for using campaign funds to travel to Florida , where she had accepted fees.

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"The representative Omar must personally repay the committee Omar $ 3,469.23," the report concludes. "This repayment payment corresponds to the total amount of campaign funds used for purposes not authorized by law in 2016 and 2017. The Omar representative must provide documentation within 30 days from the date of this order, indicating the deposit of the refund in the committee Omar Account. "

Aditionellement, conservative commentators have pointed out the Commission's report revealed that Omar and her current husband, Ahmed Hirsi, had filed joint tax returns in 2014 and 2015, while Omar was allegedly married to another man. Omar was married civilly with Ahmed Nur Said Elmi in 2009, and the couple separated in 2011 without formally filing for divorce until 2017.

Prior to her marriage to Elmi, Omar had already married Hirsi in the Muslim "religious tradition", but the couple did not officially get married until 2018.

Tax experts say that the IRS only allows joint statements if a couple is in a state that legally recognizes the couple as a married person.

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"The Crisis Committee has asked Frederick and Rosen to prepare press releases for Representative Omar and Mr. Hirsi to allow Frederick and Rosen to obtain the common tax returns from the representatives of Mr. Omar and Mr. Hirsi for 2014 and 2015, "says the report. Frederick & Rosen then reviewed the documents obtained from the Internal Revenue Service on behalf of the Omar Committee. However, there is no evidence on file to indicate that the services provided benefited the Omar Committee, and the Omar Panel failed to prove, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the services provided by Frederick & Rosen constituted a non-campaign payout authorized under the State of Minnesota. Article 211B.12 of the laws. The Omar representative is to reimburse the committee the $ 1,500 paid to the law firm Kjellberg for the services provided by Frederick & Rosen, Ltd.

This reference to the joint deposit of Omar and Hirsi has not, however, been studied or discussed further in the report.

The council discovered that Omar's campaign had bought her a plane ticket to Boston, where she had spoken at a political rally. paid a hotel in Washington, DC, where Omar participated in an interview for the Girl UP conference of the United Nations Foundation; and covered his trip to Chicago to accept an award and attend a fundraising luncheon.

Under Minnesota law, field trips must be service-related. Omar was a representative of the state of Minneapolis at the time of the violations. She was elected to the American House last November.

The representative of the Republican state, Steve Drazkowski, first raised complaints against Omar, suggesting that she had used campaign funds worth $ 2,250 to pay a fee. lawyer during his divorce proceedings. Omar said that these payments to his lawyer were fees related to the campaign.

The board concluded that the payment was in fact a refund to two other law firms for work related to immigration and taxation documents. The board also determined that the $ 1,500 spent to correct a problem in Omar's tax return was not an expense related to the campaign and had to be returned.

According to counsel, there is evidence that the US $ 2,250 was not a payment for the dissolution of Omar's marriage. The board ordered Omar to file an amended report containing more information on payments to law firms.

Omar had called the demands for political motivation. In a statement, her campaign in Congress said she was "happy that this process is complete" and that she intends to abide by the council's findings.

Drazkowski said in a statement that the results do not "reassure the Minnesotians" and that the report "raises even more troubling questions".

Sam Dorman of Fox News and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

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