Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) violated House ethics rules in failing to disclose her husband’s assets and liabilities stemming from his marijuana and wine businesses, according to a conservative watchdog group.
Omar, a member of the progressive “Squad” in Congress, should be investigated by the Office of Congressional Ethics over the lack of disclosure, the National Legal and Policy Center argued in a complaint filed on Wednesday with the independent agency. The complaint cited a June story in the Minnesota Reformer on how Omar’s husband, Tim Mynett, and his business partner, Will Hailer, are being accused of fraud and breach of contract in connection to their marijuana and wine ventures, which collapsed.
Omar, over the last three years, has not disclosed to Congress the value of these troubled business ventures, NLPC said in the complaint, pointing to a reported $300,000 investment from a Washington, D.C., business owner, Naeem Mohd, in the wine business — eStCru.
“While Mynett and Hailer’s wine business seems to be a bust, they say they are now working to sell the intellectual property and trademarks associated with the brand,” NLPC’s counsel, Paul Kamenar, wrote in the complaint. “Indeed, Rep. Omar did not list any transactions by her spouse under Schedule B: Transactions for the last three years regarding any of his wine and cannabis businesses.”
Speaking to the Washington Examiner, one Minnesota Republican said the public in his and Omar’s state is “tired of the financial grifts these political leeches are playing to enrich themselves.”
Omar is “unafraid to make potentially illegal financial decisions at the expense” of voters, said Joe Fraser, who is running for Senate in the Gopher State.
Omar has faced scrutiny in the past over paying millions of dollars through her campaign to a firm owned by her husband. In response to criticism of apparent wrongdoing to enrich him, she defended the payments.
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“I don’t pay my husband, I pay the firm to do work,” she said in 2020. “And so what we do is that we have this firm really carry out the contractual work that we do with other vendors.”
Omar’s office did not return a request for comment.