Ilhan Omar has now paid almost $879,000 to her new husband’s a political consulting firm, records show.
The Democrat congresswoman, who married her chief fundraiser Tim Mynett in early March after an affair, has paid $122,000 to his eStreet Group since they tied the knot.
Another $67,000 was paid to the group immediately before the marriage took place, while contributions since the start of the year now total almost $293,000.
Since Mynett began working for Omar during the 2018 election – which she won by a landslide running in a safe seat – his firm has now received a total of $878,930.65.
Ilhan Omar has paid $122,000 to husband Tim Mynett’s consulting firm since the couple tied the knot in March (pictured left in Washington, and right the marriage announcement)
It is not known when Omar and Mynett, who were both married at the time, began their affair.
However, a divorce filing by Mynett’s wife revealed the couple separated in April 2019 when he declared his love for Omar.
The couple, who had been together since 2006 and have a 13-year-old son, got divorced in December last year after seven years of marriage.
Meanwhile Omar’s husband Ahmed Hirsi – whom she married in 2002 in an Islamic ceremony before remarrying him in a legally binding union in 2018 – divorced her in November last year.
It came after he had flown to Washington DC to pay her a surprise visit, and found her in her apartment with Mynett while the couple were wearing just their pajamas.
Omar and Mynett announced they had married on Instagram in March this year, after they were pictured together wearing rings by Dailymail.com.
The marriage is Omar’s third. After wedding Hirsi in 2002, she then married Ahmed Elmi in a civil ceremony in 2009.
Ilhan and Mynett divorced their respective partners late last year after an affair that had been ongoing since at least April, his wife claims (pictured together in May 2019)
The pair split in 2011 and officially divorced in 2017, when she remarried Hirsi.
There is speculation that Elmi is actually Omar’s brother, and that the marriage was part of an immigration scam that saw him gain funding to attend North Dakota State University. The issue is currently being probed by the FBI.
Payments from Omar to Mynett’s company have also been the subject of at least one ethics complaint, but appear to be above-board.
Of the payments made this year, the largest single amount came out on March 30 for mail advertising in the run-up to the election, with votes due to take place in August and November.
Payments have also been made for digital consulting and advertising, fundraising and travel expenses.
While there is no law against paying a company owned by a spouse for campaign services, reformers say the practice should be outlawed.
Ilhan has now paid a total of $878,000 to her husband’s eStreet consulting firm since he first began working as her chief fundraiser in 2018 (pictured after winning the election)
Richard Painter, ethics chief to the Bush White House, told the New York Post that candidates who run in safe seats – such as Omar – but who still receive millions of dollars in funding due to their profiles, are able to use it to enrich themselves.
He said: ‘I think it’s a horrible idea to allow it, given the amount of money that goes into these campaigns from special interests.
‘We already have enough problems with gifts to campaigns as a quid pro quo for political action.’
Omar won Minnesota’s 5th district by a landslide in 2018 when the Democrat incumbent, Keith Ellison, announced he would not be running.
She garnered 78 per cent of the vote compared to her Republican challenger’s 21 per cent.
Omar is widely expected to carry the district again in 2020, with primary votes due on August 11 before the general election on November 3.