Ilhan Omar braces for results of campaign-finance probe

Freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., marched into Congress demanding the House change its rules so she could dress as she wanted and later made anti-Semitic comments that prompted a resolution. Now she’s facing an investigation into complaints she spent campaign funds on her divorce lawyer as well as personal travel. Sinclair Broadcasting Group reported the […]

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U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minnesota (Official portrait)

Freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., marched into Congress demanding the House change its rules so she could dress as she wanted and later made anti-Semitic comments that prompted a resolution.

Now she’s facing an investigation into complaints she spent campaign funds on her divorce lawyer as well as personal travel.

Sinclair Broadcasting Group reported the results of the investigation will be announced as early as next month.

“The complaints were filed last year, while Omar cruised to election to the House of Representatives, by a Republican state lawmaker, Rep. Steve Drazkowski. In referring Omar to the Minnesota Campaign Finance Board, Drazkowski alleged that Omar improperly spent close to $6,000 in campaign funds for personal use, including payments to her divorce attorney and for travel to Boston and Estonia,” the report said.

“Drazkowski’s filing of the two complaints followed an earlier episode in which Omar repaid $2,500 for honoraria she received for speeches at colleges that receive state funding, a violation of ethics rules for Minnesota lawmakers.”

Drazkowski told Sinclair he saw a pattern of Omar not following the law, the report said.

“She’s repeatedly trampled on the laws of the state in a variety of areas, and gotten by with it,” he said.

It is the Minnesota Campaign Finance Board that conducted the investigation, Sinclair said. As a practice, it does not confirm or deny investigations.

Drazkowski has posted various updates on his website, the report said, including “quotations from formal notifications he said he had received from the campaign finance board in which the panel apparently informed Drazkowski that it had commenced the investigation into the two matters.”

One notification said: “The Omar Committee’s 2017 year-end report shows several noncampaign disbursements for out-of-state travel for Rep. Omar to attend various events. … The information on the committee’s 2017 year-end report does not indicate how attendance at these events would have helped Rep. Omar in the performance of her legislative duties.”

The financing questions were raised in a debate between Omar and a challenger last year.

“Moderator Tom Crann picked up the issue, posing a series of questions to Omar about the complaints,” SBG reported. “Omar said Drazkowski was ‘bigoted’ and said she had at that point not received any notification from the campaign finance board as to whether it was formally investigating Drazkowski’s complaints. Asked three times by Crann 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.'”

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