President Donald Trump said that there’s “a lot of talk” that Rep. Ilhan Omar may have married her own brother on Wednesday, but added that he knows “nothing” about the allegation.
This is the first time the president has commented publicly on accusations that Omar, a member of the freshman Democrat “squad,” may have been involved in a fraudulent marriage in order to game the immigration system.
Prompted by a reporter’s question about the situation as he departed the White House, Trump said, “There’s a lot of talk about the fact that she was married to her brother. I know nothing about it.”
He added, “I don’t know, but I’m sure that somebody would be looking at that.”
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The claim that Omar married her brother originated on conservative blogs in 2016, gaining enough steam that Omar denied the “baseless” and “offensive” allegation multiple times.
“Insinuations that Ahmed Nur Said Elmi is my brother are absurd and offensive,” Omar said.
The Minnesota Star-Tribune, meanwhile, reported about inconsistencies in Omar’s marriages in June 2019, explaining, “New investigative documents released by a state agency have given fresh life to lingering questions about the marital history of Rep. Ilhan Omar and whether she once married a man — possibly her own brother — to skirt immigration laws.”
Omar filed taxes in 2014 and 2015 with Ahmed Hirsi, her current husband, while she was still married to Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, and court documents show she was living with Hirsi while claiming to be married to Elmi. (RELATED: Ilhan Omar Filed Joint Taxes With Man She Wasn’t Married To)
“The search of records could neither conclusively confirm nor rebut the allegation that he is Omar’s sibling,” the Star-Tribune concluded in its report.