(This post may contain disputed claims. We make no assertions as to the validity of the information presented by our Opinion Columnist. We are an opinion blog, not a traditional news outlet, and this post should be treated as such. Enjoy.)Rep. Ilhan Omar previously denied that she violated any campaign finance laws in the past, but she has now been caught redhanded. The controversial Minnesota Congresswoman can no longer deny these charges as she has now been ordered to pay thousands back personally. You don’t want to miss this.
Rep. Ilhan Omar has been found guilty of campaign finance law violations when she was serving as a state lawmaker. This scandal has plagued her for almost two years with the noted anti-Semitic Congresswoman refusing to acknowledge it.
During a 2018 debate between Omar and then-Republican challenger Jennifer Zielinski, a radio moderator brought up the campaign complaints to Omar. In response, Omar called the man who brought the charges against her, Rep. Steve Drazkowski, a “bigot.” She claimed that she had at that point not received any notification from the campaign finance board.
When asked three times by the moderator if she had misused campaign funds for travel, however, Omar hesitated before replying in a halting manner: “If there was, um—[pauses]—an, an improper action, I would not have used it,” according to Sinclair.
That was then, now the state board has found she indeed violated campaign finance laws.
“The state board ordered Omar to personally reimburse her campaign for just under $3,500 the campaign spent on out-of-state travel for Omar and on her joint tax returns,” reports the Daily Caller.
Omar is also required to pay a civil penalty of $500 for using campaign funds to pay for her travel to a conference in Florida, where she received an honorarium for speaking.
In 2018, state Rep. Steve Drazkowski, a Republican, filed complaints with the Minnesota Campaign Finance Board, alleging that Omar improperly spent nearly $6,000 in campaign funds for personal use, including other payments to her divorce attorney and travel expenses.
Drazkowski’s filing came after an earlier case in which Omar paid back $2,500 for honoraria fees she received for college speeches—a violation of ethics rules. Drazkowski later amended his complaint to include the payments Omar’s campaign made for her personal travel.
“I had observed a long pattern,” Drazkowski told Sinclair. “Rep. Omar hasn’t followed the law. She’s repeatedly trampled on the laws of the state in a variety of areas, and gotten by with it.”
But that’s not all. Omar appears to have used funds for obtaining immigration records and to pay off her personal tax attorneys.
“The $2,250 payment was a reimbursement for two payments made by the Kjellberg Law Office. One payment of $750 was made to De Leon & Nestor, LLC for obtaining immigration records and one payment of $1,500 was made to Frederick & Rosen, Ltd. for services related to Mr. Hirsi’s and Rep. Omar’s filed joint tax returns of 2014 and 2015.”
So, now that she has been caught, Omar is quick to smooth it all out and then to claim it wasn’t for “personal use.” Well, it was. Omar’s paying for immigration records and to tax attorneys related to filing her joint tax returns.
This quote is taken directly from the judgment against Omar: “Ms. Kjellberg stated that there was a personal benefit to Rep. Omar from the services as there was an issue with her tax returns that needed to be corrected regardless of her status as a candidate.”
“I’m glad this process is complete and that the Campaign Finance Board has come to a resolution on this matter. We have been collaborative in this process and are glad the report showed that none of the money was used for personal use, as was initially alleged,” Omar said in a statement her campaign released to the Daily Caller.
“In addition to complying with the Board’s findings, I plan on closing the account from my State House race and distributing the funds to organizations that help train first-time candidates to run for office—so that the next generation of candidates and their teams know how to adequately track and report campaign expenses. I also believe we need to dedicate more resources to our campaign finance agencies—and I look forward to supporting these efforts,” Omar said.
What? It’s so bizarre how these leftists blow off their own corruption. Omar was hoping no one would follow up on her campaign funds. Then, she’s ordered to pay it back because it was for her own use. That’s the whole point.
And when she knew she had used funds for personal use, she uses the old race card and calls the man bringing charges against her, Rep. Steve Drazkowski, a “bigot.”
Well, Rep. Drazkowski shouldn’t hold his breath waiting for a much-earned apology from Omar. No, politicians like Omar are grifters, using their power to take advantage of the system and when caught, they simply pretend like it never happened. Americans across the country now know the truth and here’s hoping Omar’s days are numbered in Congress.
