Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) on Friday filed for divorce from Ahmed Hirsi, the father of her three children, following reports that she was having an affair with a liberal, DC-based political consultant. This comes just five weeks after she told a local news reporter that she was not separated from her husband, nor having an affair.
WCCO’s Esme Murphy on Aug. 27 asked the congresswoman on video: “Are you separated from your husband? Are you dating someone?”
Omar replied: “No, I am not. And like I said yesterday, I have no interest in allowing the conversation about my personal life to continue.
Murphy seemed impressed with Omar’s “unfazed” attitude. “You seem completely unfazed and unbowed by negative publicity about your personal life that you don’t want to comment on. How do you do it?” she asked.
Omar answered, “I know who I am. The people who I love know who I am and what I care about. I have three beautiful little children and a family to care for, so for me, my focus is doing the work that I feel I was destined to do.”
Now Omar is blaming the media and her political foes for exacerbating the breakup of her marriage.
“Ilhan and Ahmed have been the object of speculation and innuendo from political opponents and the media,” Omar’s lawyer said in a statement. “This has taken a significant toll on Ilhan, Ahmed, and their three children. As with all marriages, this is intensely personal and a difficult time for their family,” the statement added.
Omar and Hirsi were married in a nonlegal “faith ceremony” in 2002, and separated in 2008. She legally married her second husband—and probable brother—Ahmed Nur Said Elmi in 2009. Nine years later, she legally married Hirsi, and now, citing “irretrievable breakdown of the marriage relationship,” the congresswoman is ditching him for a second time.
Omar is seeking “joint legal and physical custody” of their three minor children, according to the New York Post.
She also asked the court to determine child support to “serve the minor children’s best interest” and award the “marital property” as the court “may deem just and equitable.”
Omar’s paramour Tim Mynett, 38, and his wife Dr. Beth Mynett separated in April over the affair. The Mynetts have a 13-year-old son together.
In a bombshell filing made public in August, Dr. Mynett alleged that her spouse Tim Mynett had made a “shocking declaration of love” for the Somali-born congresswoman before he ditched her.
“The parties physically separated on or about April 7, 2019, when Defendant told Plaintiff that he was romantically involved with and in love with another woman, Ilhan Omar,” the court papers said.
Mynett has worked for left-wing Democrats such as Omar and her Minnesota predecessor, Keith Ellison. Omar’s campaign fund reportedly paid Tim Mynett’s firm for work, including for travel, throughout the affair.
Conservative watchdog groups have filed complaints with the Federal Election Commission over this money transfer.
In early September, Tim Mynett filed a response with the DC court denying he had an affair.
“Since the time of Mr. Mynett’s departure from the marital home, Ms. Mynett began a negative campaign against Mr. Mynett, seemingly in an effort to ruin his career and permanently damage his relationship with William and his step-daughter,” the court papers said.
“Defendant met Rep. Omar while working for her,’’ the Mynett court document stated. “Although devastated by the betrayal and deceit that preceded his abrupt declaration, Plaintiff told Defendant that she loved him, and was willing to fight for the marriage.”
“Defendant, however, told her that was not an option for him’’ and moved out the next day.
Dr Mynett argued in her filing that she doesn’t trust her husband’s judgment regarding their son anymore, in part because of his inappropriate behavior with Omar.
“By way of example, days prior to Defendant’s devastating and shocking declaration of love for Rep. Omar and admission of their affair, he and Rep. Omar took the parties’ son to dinner to formally meet for the first time at the family’s favorite neighborhood restaurant while Plaintiff was out of town,” the papers state.
“Rep. Omar gave the parties’ son a gift and the Defendant later brought her back inside the family’s home,” the court papers say.
Mynett said in the filing that she believed her husband “put his son in harm’s way by taking him out in public with Rep. Omar, who at that time had garnered a plethora of media attention along with death threats, one rising to the level of arresting the known would-be assassin that same week.”