Omar Says ‘Not to My Knowledge’ on Brother-Marriage Claim as DOJ Filing Lists Her as ‘Ilhan Nur Said Elmi’

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., called the long-running claim that she married her brother “insane” on Wednesday, but answered “Not to my knowledge” when asked directly whether she and her former husband were related.

The exchange came in an interview with MS NOW’s Chris Hayes, her first since federal agents searched her Washington, D.C., home on Oct. 12, the New York Post reported.

Hayes asked whether there was any “weird kernel of truth” to the allegation involving Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, whom Omar married in 2009. Omar said the story started on a Somali blog and was picked up by conservative activists in Minneapolis.

“Somebody put in there that, you know, he had to have been my brother or something to that effect,” Omar said. She said bloggers then found people who claimed she had introduced Elmi to them as her brother.

The claim has circulated for years and has never been publicly substantiated. Omar has repeatedly denied committing immigration fraud. Her answer spread quickly online and was featured on Fox News.

The same day, the Justice Department filed a motion in federal court in Washington that refers to the congresswoman as “Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, a/k/a Ilhan Abdullahi Omar.” The filing, posted by Judicial Watch, does not explain the choice of name.

The motion asks a federal judge to delay the government’s response to requests from 14 press organizations, The New York Times and Judicial Watch to unseal records tied to the search of Omar’s home.

Prosecutors told the court the search warrant has not yet been fully executed. They asked to file a status report within 30 days after it is, or, failing that, for a Nov. 9 deadline, six days after the election. The applicants oppose the request.

The Daily Wire reported that it had asked the department to explain the name and what remains to be done under the warrant.

A person briefed on the investigation told the Associated Press that federal authorities are examining possible fraud in her family’s immigration paperwork and have issued grand jury subpoenas to some relatives.

Sources told the Post the probe may involve false statements about Omar’s birth date. If her citizenship was obtained through misrepresentation by her or her father, Nur Omar Mohamed, the administration will seek to denaturalize and deport her, a source told the paper.

Omar says she arrived in the U.S. at 12 and became a citizen at 17 in 2000 through her father’s naturalization. “I’m sure there are a lot of smart 12-year-olds, but that seems like a leap,” she told Hayes, the AP reported.

Hayes also asked about financial disclosures that suggested she and her husband, Tim Mynett, were worth as much as $30 million, figures Omar later said were a mistake and revised. She described herself as “working class.”

“I have a Toyota Camry that’s from 2016. It’s our only car,” Omar said. The Post reported that a separate inquiry into the couple’s finances is being run out of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington. Omar denies wrongdoing.

“I’m confident in my truth. I’m confident in the fact that I didn’t do anything wrong,” she said, adding that she plans to move out of the searched home because its address is now public.

President Trump has said Omar could face prison if fraud is proven. “She could go to jail,” he said Tuesday. “They keep talking about deportation.”

No charges have been filed. Omar is running for reelection Nov. 3 in a heavily Democratic Minneapolis district she is expected to keep, according to the AP.

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