Firm Co-Owned By Ilhan Omar’s Husband Got $500,000 Coronavirus Bailout While Her Campaign Gave Them Millions: Report

 

A company co-owned by the husband of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) received hundreds of thousands of dollars in coronavirus bailout money while the freshman lawmaker’s campaign paid the company millions of dollars.Mynett, received nearly $135,000 in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans and $500,000 in Economic Injury Disaster loans,” Fox News reported. “Campaign finance filings also show that the firm raked in millions during the 2020 campaign from Omar.”Omar revealed in March that she had married Mynett after she had denied allegations that she was having an affair with him while both she and Mynett were married to other people.

Omar “has paid nearly $2.8 million to her husband’s political consulting firm so far in the 2019-2020 election cycle, including nearly 70% of her third-quarter disbursements,” Fox News reported separately. “Federal Election Commission data shows that Omar’s campaign sent $1.6 million to E Street Group LLC, which is owned by her husband Tim Mynett, from the start of 2019 through Jul. 22, 2020. After that, she reported an additional $1.1 million in the third quarter and $27,000 in the following weeks. That $1.1 million constituted nearly 70% of the $1.6 million that Omar’s campaign spent that quarter.”

In mid-November, Omar cut ties with her husband’s firm after she won re-election in Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District, saying she wanted to “make sure that anybody who is supporting our campaign with their time or financial support feels there is no perceived issue with that support,” the Star Tribune reported.

“Every dollar that was spent went to a team of more than twenty that were helping us fight back against attacks and organize on the ground and online in a COVID-19 world,” she added. “And Tim — beyond his salary at the firm — received no profit whatsoever from the consulting relationship the firm provided.”

While Omar did win in last month’s election, she underperformed by the largest percentage in the country compared to Democrat Joe Biden. While Biden received 80% of the vote in Minnesota’s 5th District, Omar received just 64%. Biden defeated Trump by 62 points in the district, while Omar defeated GOP challenger Lacy Johnson by 39 points. That difference is “the largest gap in election performance between a Democratic representative and the Democratic presidential nominee in the U.S.,” Fox News notes.

Dave Wasserman of the left-of-center Cook Political Report tweeted out the results of the election, writing: “I’m not aware of anywhere near this severe an underperformance for any other House *candidate* in the county, let alone an incumbent.”