Ilhan Omar Investigation: A Conversation with Cheryl Lacey

by Sharon Rondeau

(Feb. 11, 2026) — On Tuesday afternoon Eastern Time (U.S.)/8:00 a.m. Melbourne time Wednesday, The Post & Email‘s editor was a guest on “The Cheryl Lacey Show” to discuss developments in federal investigations into Congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s 2024 financial report, filed in May of last year, as well as longstanding allegations she committed immigration fraud by marrying a blood brother.

Afterward Lacey provided an overview of the broadcast, including a summary of the discussion titled, “Follow the Money – The Ilhan Omar Investigation: A Conversation with Sharon Rondeau.” The segment can be found here.

What Types of Fraud are Alleged?

As reported by Christopher Rufo and Ryan Thorpe in November, preceded by others specifically investigating Omar’s marriages and potential immigration and tax fraud, a massive social-service scandal has pilfered billions of dollars of U.S. taxpayer funds for a number of years in Minnesota, appearing to be centered in its Minneapolis Somali immigrant community.

Daycare centers, Medicaid-funded programs and a child-nutrition program, “Feeding Our Future,” were allegedly used as fronts to purloin federal funds, with an unknown amount reportedly wired overseas and possibly into the hands of Al-Shabaab, a Somali terrorist group.

The FBI, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Justice Department and Minnesota authorities are reportedly investigating the misuse of funds, which Trump claims reached $19 billion in Minnesota and as high as $100 billion given that California and other states are alleged to have carried out the same type of schemes.

On Truth Social, Trump has connected Omar to the Minneapolis operation and stated the Justice Department would open an investigation into her finances. “She should be in jail, or even a worse punishment, sent back to Somalia, considered one of the absolutely worst countries in the World,” he posted January 18.

He has also termed her a “fake congresswoman.”

Her predecessor in Congress, Keith Ellison, is Minnesota’s attorney general and has been accused of knowing about the social-service fraud allegations and even facilitating their perpetuation.

Omar has denied any wrongdoing and accused Trump of “deflecting from your failures with lies and conspiracy theories about me.”

“Years of ‘investigations’ have found nothing,” she claimed on X on January 26.

Citizenship

Omar was born in Somalia and spent five years in a Kenyan refugee camp as a result of the Somali civil war. Arriving in the U.S. in 1995, according to her bio, she claims she became a U.S. Citizen in 2000 at the age of 17 following her father’s alleged naturalization.

U.S. immigration law allows for a minor child or children of a naturalized citizen to obtain U.S. citizenship through “derivation.” Once 18, however, a child’s eligibility for derivative citizenship ends.

Further, and as uncovered by former Minnesota DFL primary challenger AJ Kern, the U.S. government has stated in writing that no documents supporting Omar’s father’s naturalization exist.

In January, Kern was interviewed by Dana Kennedy of Daily Mail, providing the documents she received from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) revealing no naturalization records were located for Omar’s father, Nur Said Elmi Mohamed.

Kern has also been interviewed by Liz Collin of Alpha News and Breanna Morello of The American Journal as interest in Omar’s potential connections to the Minnesota fraud scheme has increased.

Without naturalization, Omar is ineligible to serve in Congress, where she is now completing her fourth term representing Minnesota’s 5th district. Article I, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution states:

No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.

At present, there is no congressional requirement for candidates, congressmen-elect or sitting congressmen to prove U.S. citizenship.

Campaign Finance

Omar served one term in the Minnesota House of Representatives from 2017-2018. In 2018, she ran successfully for Congress and has won re-election in all subsequent elections.

In an October 2019 press release, Minnesota State Rep. Steve Drazkowski (R), now a state senator, declared Omar a “serial criminal.”

In July 2018, Drazkowski filed two ethics complaints against Omar with the State Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board, whose subsequent investigation found Omar’s campaign to have “improperly paid” for travel and legal expenses. In June 2019 she was ordered to reimburse her campaign $3,469.23 plus render a $500 fine to the State of Minnesota for the violations.

Husband’s Business Ventures

On February 6, U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman James Comer (R-KY1) issued a press release containing a letter sent to Omar’s current and third husband, Tim Mynett, regarding two business entities with which he is closely associated. The entities, eStCru, a California winery, and Rose Lake Capital, both launched just several years ago, catapulted from their respective small market values to tens millions of dollars between 2023 and the issuance of Omar’s 2024 congressional financial disclosure statement signed in May of last year.

The letter begins:

The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is investigating widespread fraud in Minnesota’s social services programs. Financial disclosure forms, filed by your wife Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, show eStCru LLC and Rose Lake Capital LLC, which you hold ownership stakes in, went from being worth as much as $51,000 in 2023 to as much as $30 million in 2024.¹ Given that these companies do not publicly list their investors or where their money comes from, this sudden jump in value raises concerns that unknown individuals may be investing to gain influence with your wife.²

Who is Tim Mynett?

In March 2020, Omar married her third husband, Tim Mynett, a political consultant and “advisor.” His LinkedIn profile states he is “committed to doing good in the world.”

The profile contains no posts and does not mention his partnership in eStCru. The company’s Facebook page’s last post appears to be from early 2023, and a link to its website leads to an error message.

From 2018 to 2022, Mynett was a political consultant for E Street Group, an organization he co-founded with Will Hailer which received almost $3 million in fees from Omar’s congressional campaign.

Hailer and Mynett founded Rose Lake Capital LLC in 2022, whose website contains no information as to associates and partners, no active links and whoe LinkedIn profile indicates “no longer exists.”

As reported by Fox News on November 10, 2020:

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., has paid nearly $2.8 million to her husband’s political consulting firm so far in the 2019-2020 election cycle, including nearly 70% of her third-quarter disbursements. 

Federal Election Commission data shows that Omar’s campaign sent $1.6 million to E Street Group LLC, which is owned by her husband Tim Mynett, from the start of 2019 through Jul. 22, 2020. After that, she reported an additional $1.1 million in the third quarter and $27,000 in the following weeks. That $1.1 million constituted nearly 70% of the $1.6 million that Omar’s campaign spent that quarter.

The expenses covered a range of services, including cable advertising, “digital consulting,” video production and editing.

As we discussed with Lacey, the same month Omar announced her campaign would no longer engage E Street Group for consulting services. At the time Minnesota Reformer reported:

U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar on Sunday announced she has severed financial ties with a political consulting firm co-owned by her husband that received $2.78 million from Omar’s campaign account over a 15-month period starting in July 2019.

The financial arrangement has drawn scrutiny. According to Federal Election Commission reports, Omar’s campaign has made 140 payments to E Street Group for services including digital advertising, fundraising consulting and mail production and postage. 

In a post-election update emailed to supporters, Omar, who handily won her re-election, praised the work of her husband Tim Mynett’s firm, E Street Group. She also suggested that the onslaught of spending in her primary race and the general election are reasons why she did not cut ties sooner with the firm, whose co-owner is Will Hailer, a former staffer to Attorney General Keith Ellison.

Comer requested extensive documentation on both companies to be delivered no later than February 19.

In the wake of the burgeoning Minnesota fraud scandal, on December 27 New York Post reported:

When she first took office in 2019, the left-wing “Squad” member declared a net worth between negative $25,000 and negative $65,000, claimed to own no assets and be only carrying student and car debt.

Now Omar’s assets have suddenly skyrocketed to anywhere between $6 million and $30 million, according to her latest financial disclosure — just months after the congresswoman dismissed claims that she was a millionaire as “ridiculous” and “categorically false.” 

Her links to the Minnesota welfare scheme have started to come to light in recent weeks.

Her campaign received $7,400 in direct donations from at least three now-convicted fraudsters, though the “Squad” member insisted she returned the donations after the scandal broke.

She’s been closely linked to at least two individuals from Minnesota’s Somalian community who’ve been charged in the fraud.

One is Salim Ahmed Said, the co-owner of Minneapolis’ Safari Restaurant, where Omar held her 2018 congressional victory party.

Said was found guilty in August of stealing more than $12 million for serving 3.9 million “phantom” meals during the COVID-19 pandemic, blowing much of the money on a $2 million Minneapolis mansion and a $9,000-a-month shopping habit at Nordstrom, according to prosecutors.

Marriage/Immigration

Two Men with the Same First Name

A January 7 proposal by South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace (R) that the “immigration records” for Omar and her “Brother/Husband” be subpoenaed was rebuffed by members of both parties on the Oversight Committee. Mace is running for governor of South Carolina and in a press release decried what she said was Congress “protecting its own” by squelching her request.

As alleged by numerous journalists over at least a decade and reiterated by President Trump as early as 2019 and more recently, Omar “married” a blood brother, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, in 2009.

According to Minnesota marriage records, Omar’s first marital union to Ahmed Abdisalan Hirsi was not recognized by the state. Omar herself claims it resulted from a 2002 “religious” ceremony based in her “faith”; likewise with her divorce from him in 2008.

Wikipedia reports:

In 2009, Omar married Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, a British Somali.^[55] According to Omar, in 2011 she and Elmi had a faith-based divorce and she reconciled with Hirsi, with whom she had a third child in 2012.^[290][55] In 2017, Elmi and Omar legally divorced,^[50] and Omar and Hirsi legally married in 2018.^[31] On October 7, 2019, Omar filed for divorce from Hirsi, citing an “irretrievable breakdown” of the marriage.^[291] The divorce was finalized on November 5, 2019.^[288][292]

Omar’s union with Elmi is recorded in Hennepin County’s marriage register, as is her later official marriage to Hirsi.

According to a report from Fox 9, Omar identified Elmi as “a British citizen.” After “marrying” him, he and Omar attended North Dakota State University, raising questions on the part of some of “immigration and student loan fraud intended to aid Elmi and Omar in the process of getting student loans or a student visa for Elmi.”

In a December 11 column, New York Post wrote that Elmi “calls himself a ‘dirty dandy’ on social media and has run off to South Africa, dodging President Trump’s accusations that he is her [Omar’s] brother.” The article continues:

Mystery has long swirled about the embattled Minnesota congresswoman’s marriage to Ahmed Elmi, to whom she was wed between 2009 and 2017, which various politicians on the right have called a sham.

Elmi, 40, left the US long before he officially divorced Omar and seemingly disappeared. However, The Post can now reveal he’s been studying in the UK and South Africa.

A caption beneath two photos of Elmi reads, “The flamboyant 40-year-old has spent years bouncing around social science departments and is currently a researcher at the University of Bristol in the UK.”

The photos, apparently posted on Instagram, were linked in a Fox News article published the same day but now yield an error message.

Will There Be More?

In July, this writer sent a report it compiled on Omar’s “potential citizenship fraud” to Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Civil Division Brett A. Shumate, who six weeks earlier issued a memorandum indicating the department’s intent to prioritize “denaturalization” in the event U.S. citizenship were determined to have been acquired “illegally” or “by ‘concealment of a material fact or by willful misrepresentation.’”

We did not expect, nor did we receive, a response.