Before Rep. Ilhan Omar was known as the most popular anti-Semite in Congress, there was that whole weird story about her marrying her brother. And that came up again when complaints about her campaign finance violation were filed. The Omar Committee has completed its investigation, meting out a slap on the wrist for her misuse of campaign funds.
Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., repeatedly violated state rules when she used campaign funds to pay for personal out-of-state travel as well as help on her tax returns and must reimburse her former campaign committee nearly $3,500, Minnesota campaign finance officials ruled Thursday.
The Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board said the first-term congresswoman also must pay the state a $500 civil penalty for using campaign money to travel to Florida, where she accepted an honorarium.
There’s also the whole issue with her lawyer. And the most intriguing part of the story has been left on the table.
‘The crisis committee had Frederick & Rosen prepare releases for Rep. Omar and Mr. Hirsi to sign in order for Frederick & Rosen to obtain Rep. Omar’s and Mr. Hirsi’s filed joint tax returns for 2014 and 2015,” the report notes. “Frederick & Rosen then reviewed the documents obtained from the Internal Revenue Service on behalf of the Omar committee. However, there is no substantive evidence in the record to show that the services benefited the Omar committee, and the Omar committee has failed to prove, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the services from Frederick & Rosen were a permitted noncampaign disbursement under Minnesota Statutes section 211B.12. Rep. Omar must reimburse the committee the $1,500 that was paid to the Kjellberg Law Firm for the services from Frederick & Rosen, Ltd.”
That reference to Omar and Hirsi’s joint filing, however, was not investigated or addressed further in the report…
Republican state Rep. Steve Drazkowski initially raised the complaints against Omar, suggesting that she used $2,250 in campaign funds to pay a lawyer for her divorce proceedings. Omar has said those payments to her attorney were campaign-related fees.
The board found the payment was actually reimbursement to two other law firms for work related to immigration and tax documents. The board also determined that $1,500 spent to correct an issue on Omar’s tax return was not a campaign-related expense and must be returned.
Using campaign cash for either one is dubious. And filing joint tax returns is obviously very damning.
And, instead of allowing Omar to repeatedly change the conversation with bigoted publicity stunts and AOC-like victimhood whines, conservatives would be better served by staying on this issue because there might very well be illegal actions at the bottom of this well.
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