“Not to my knowledge” Rep. Ilhan Omar appeared on the legacy media and refused to give a definitive answer when asked whether her former husband Ahmed Nur Said Elmi was also her brother.
#DC
Omar hasn’t been seen publicly since a pre-dawn raid on her D.C., home on October 12.
Omar said the allegations started with a post on a Somali blog. She described people in Minneapolis who said she had introduced Elmi as her brother as “insane” and called the overall idea a right-wing conspiracy theory.
She was then asked directly whether she was related to Elmi at all. Omar answered,
“Not to my knowledge.”
Q: Who was this man that was your husband? When did they start saying that he was your brother? Why?
Omar: It started with the Somali blog that, um, I don’t know if it still exists, but somebody put in there that, you know, that he had to have been my brother or something to that effect.
Q: You are not related to him at all.
Omar: Not that not that…..
Interviewer: There’s not some weird kernel of truth that through some game of telephone….
Omar: Not to my knowledge.
Critics immediately pointed out that the phrasing is the kind of careful language used in legal settings to avoid a flat denial that could later be contradicted by evidence.
Others pointed out that a person should know if the person they married is related to them.
Homeland Security Investigations executed a judicially authorized search warrant at Omar’s D.C. home as part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation.
Sources say the investigation centers on alleged immigration fraud involving childhood paperwork filled out by her father.
Omar has called the search political intimidation aimed at a Trump critic and immediately started fundraising off of it.
Timeline:
2002:
Omar married Ahmed Hirsi in Minnesota in a Muslim religious ceremony. They had two children.
2009:
Omar legally married Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, with a Christian minister, which has sparked speculation because both Elmi & Omar are M*slims
2011:
The relationship with Elmi ended and they divorced.
She reconciled with Hirsi.
2012
Their third child was born
December 2017:
Legal divorce from Elmi finalized.
2018:
Omar legally married Hirsi.
Later:
Omar and Hirsi divorced; she later married Tim Mynett.
What do you think? Did Ilhan Omar intentionally use the vague language to protect herself because she did marry her brother?