FEC Complaint Filed against Ilhan Omar over Citizenship Claim, “Campaign Finance Violations”

by Sharon Rondeau

(Sep. 27, 2023) — On September 18, 2023, former U.S. House Democrat primary candidate AJ Kern filed a complaint and “request for advisory opinion” with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) alleging Minnesota’s fifth-district congresswoman, Ilhan Omar, “deceived the public by filing a false affidavit of candidacy claiming to be a United States citizen” leading to “campaign finance violations.”

Omar was born in Mogadishu, Somalia, arriving in the U.S. with her father as a refugee in 1995. As The Post & Email has reported previously, Omar’s birth date was first stated as October 4, 1981 but later changed, through a request by her congressional office, to October 4, 1982.

In 2016, Omar was elected to serve what would be her sole term in the Minnesota House of Representatives, after which she successfully ran for Congress, where she still serves.

While running for the same House seat in the 2022 Democratic primary, Kern challenged Omar and a third primary candidate, Jamaican-born Don Samuels, to prove their eligibility for the office by releasing documentation of their respective naturalizations. As Kern reported on her website, the Minnesota secretary of state’s office confirmed to her it does not require proof of citizenship for candidates seeking federal office.

Referencing the U.S. Constitution’s Article I, Section 2, clause 2, which stipulates the requirements for members of the U.S. House of Representatives, Kern alleged in her complaint that “Omar fabricated her naturalization, including basic, unverifiable facts about her citizenship and how she obtained alleged U.S. citizenship, in violation of 18 U.S. Code § 1015 Naturalization, citizenship or alien registry.”

That misrepresentation, Kern contended, led to Omar’s having raised “campaign funds fraudulently in violation of 52 U.S.C. § 30124 and 18 U.S.C. § 1001.”

As The Post & Email reported on July 28, more than one year earlier, Kern submitted a FOIA request to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) for any naturalization records the agency might hold for Omar’s father, Nur Omar Mohamed.

According to Omar, in 2000 she became a U.S. citizen at the age of 17 when her father naturalized. USCIS states that a “lawful permanent resident” must reside in the country for five years prior to applying for U.S. citizenship.

Refugees, however, are required to reside in the U.S. for one year prior to applying for permanent resident status.

In June 2020, Omar reported her father passed away from complications of COVID-19 at the age of 67. With no further presumption of privacy for the records, Kern submitted the FOIA to USCIS and a year later was notified in writing that the agency was unable to locate any naturalization records on Mohamed, including possible name variations and a wide time frame for his birth year.

Kern’s 11-page complaint to the FEC can be read here:

Attached to the complaint, which she sent electronically and by standard mail, was a copy of the letter she received from USCIS in June as well as scores of pages of public documentation regarding Omar’s political history.

In 2019, a finding by the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board declared Omar had “repeatedly” misused campaign funds for personal matters, for which she was ordered to reimburse her campaign committee just under $3,500 and pay a $500 fine.

Questions about Omar’s marriages and birth year remain. As The Post & Email has reported, “two days” after Kern posted a video positing that Omar could not have derived U.S. citizenship when she claimed given her then-stated birth year of 1981, Omar’s congressional office requested her archived Minnesota House webpage and other publicly-available sources be altered to reflect a birth date of October 4, 1982 rather than October 4, 1981.

At the conclusion of her complaint, Kern asked the FEC to confirm her findings of legal transgressions and, following that, “seek appropriate sanctions for any and all violations, including applicable criminal and civil penalties sufficient to deter future violations, injunctive relief to remedy these violations and prohibit any and all future violations, and such additional remedies as are necessary and appropriate to ensure compliance with FECA” (Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971).