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EXCLUSIVE: A group of Minnesota Republican state lawmakers asked the IRS in August 2019 to “conduct a detailed reexamination” of tax filings by Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., based on a report from a state board suggesting she filed joint tax returns in 2014 and 2015 with a man she was not legally married to, according to a letter obtained by Fox News Digital.
The letter was sent after the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board issued a report on June 6, 2019, indicating that Omar had filed joint tax returns in 2014 and 2015 with Ahmed Hirsi, despite being legally married to another man, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, at the time.
The joint tax returns came up during the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board’s examination of a $1,500 expense associated with Omar’s campaign committee. The board was investigating whether the expenditure was a legitimate campaign-related expense or whether campaign funds had been used to pay for services that benefited Omar personally. The payment was part of a larger $2,250 reimbursement to the Kjellberg Law Office for legal and other services.
In 2019, a group of Minnesota Republican state lawmakers asked the IRS to investigate tax filings by Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn. (Adam Gray/AP Photo)
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In response to the board’s questions, Omar’s campaign committee explained that the Kjellberg Law Office had retained the accounting firm Frederick & Rosen to obtain and review financial records as part of the campaign committee’s efforts to respond to allegations surrounding Omar’s marital history. According to the committee’s explanation, Frederick & Rosen prepared releases for Omar and Ahmed Hirsi to sign, so the firm could obtain copies of their filed joint federal income tax returns for 2014 and 2015 from the IRS.
Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., continues to generate headlines related to her finances. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)
The board concluded that the committee had not demonstrated that the $1,500 expense benefited the campaign and required Omar to reimburse the committee.
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Omar married Hirsi in 2002 in their Muslim faith tradition and that they ended their relationship in that tradition in 2008, Newsweek reported. She then legally married Ahmed Nur Said Elmi in February 2009, according to public records, as reported by Newsweek.
According to divorce documents obtained by Fox News Digital, Omar legally divorced Elmi in December 2017.
Carla Kjellberg, a lawyer for Omar and her campaign committee, stated during the board proceedings that Frederick & Rosen’s services provided “some personal benefit to Rep. Omar,” because “there was an issue with her tax returns that needed to be corrected regardless of her status as a candidate,” according to the board’s report.
In a letter to then-IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig dated Aug. 6, 2019, the state lawmakers asked the IRS to undertake a review in light of the Minnesota Campaign Finance Board report.
“Due to recent developments, I believe probable cause exists for an investigation into Rep. Omar’s tax filings,” read the letter, signed by Minnesota state Reps. Steve Drazkowski, Linda Runbeck, Glenn Gruenhagen, Shane Mekeland, John Poston, Eric Lucero, Duane Quam, Tim Miller, Cal Bahr and Jeremy Munson.
Drazkowski told Fox News Digital that the IRS never responded to the request.
The IRS did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. Fox News Digital could not confirm whether the IRS followed through with the lawmakers’ request.
Federal tax confidentiality rules generally restrict what the agency can disclose about individual taxpayers. The Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board issued its findings on June 6, 2019, following two complaints filed by Drazkowski. Although the board required Omar to repay the $1,500 that her campaign had paid the Kjellberg Law Firm for Frederick & Rosen’s services related to the tax returns, it rejected the allegation that this money was payment for Omar’s personal divorce proceeding, in which Kjellberg also represented her.
The board also required Omar to repay campaign funds used for certain travel expenses, including trips to Boston, New York and Washington, D.C.
Following the board’s 2019 findings, Omar said she was “glad” the process was complete and welcomed the board’s determination regarding allegations that she had improperly used campaign funds for personal expenses. However, she did not address the portion of the board’s report concerning the joint tax returns she submitted with Hirsi.
Omar did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
In a separate letter obtained by Fox News Digital, the Republican state lawmakers, led by Drazkowski, asked Cynthia Bauerly, then-commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Revenue, in August 2019 to review Omar’s joint tax filings.
Drazkowski said neither Bauerly nor the Minnesota Department of Revenue responded to the lawmakers’ request.
The Minnesota Department of Revenue did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
The letter from the lawmakers urging the state and federal tax reporting agencies to investigate Omar’s joint tax filings came two months after Drazkowski urged Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minn., to refer his concerns about Omar’s tax filings to the House Ethics Committee.
As previously reported by Fox News Digital, Craig told Drazkowski in a letter that he could submit information himself to the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), which was renamed to the Office of Congressional Conduct in 2021.
Ilhan Omar with Ahmed Hirsi in 2018. (Kerem Yucel/AFP via Getty Images)
The congressional ethics process allows members of the public and lawmakers to submit information concerning alleged misconduct, although the independent ethics office and the House Committee on Ethics have separate procedures.
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In late October, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said on Fox News that the federal investigation into Omar regarding potential immigration and marriage fraud had been referred to the Department of Justice (DOJ) as a “large case” that targets multiple individuals rather than just one person.
The DHS did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on whether the investigation is looking into the 2014 and 2015 joint tax filings flagged by the state lawmakers in 2019.