Democratic representative Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) continues to push cash from her campaign committee to her now-husband's consulting firm.
Omar's new committee filings, posted Wednesday afternoon, show that during the first three months of the year, the campaign paid $292,905 to the E Street Group. E Street is a political consulting firm owned by Omar's husband, Tim Mynett. The cash, which reportedly went toward an array of services that included fundraising and advertisements, accounted for over 40 percent of the campaign's $674,892 in disbursements. Omar raised $456,374 during the quarter.
Omar's campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Omar campaign also doled out $525,000 last year to Mynett's firm, its top vendor. At the time, Omar and Mynett were married to different people, but Mynett's wife alleged they were having an affair. The two denied that they had a romantic relationship. Omar's campaign and the E Street Group also faced accusations of using campaign funds on personal travel.
Rumors of an affair between Omar and Mynett garnered headlines after divorce papers from Mynett's ex-wife, Dr. Beth Mynett, were made public last summer.
"Days prior to defendant's devastating and shocking declaration of love for Rep. Omar and admission of their affair, he and Rep. Omar took the parties' son to dinner to formally meet for the first time at the family's favorite neighborhood restaurant while plaintiff was out of town," the divorce papers said. "Rep. Omar gave the parties' son a gift and the defendant later brought her back inside the family's home."
Omar denied the affair and said she was not separated from her then-husband Ahmed Abdisalan Hirsi. "I have no interest in allowing the conversation about my personal life to continue and so I have no desire to discuss it," she said.
Likewise, Mynett denied the affair and claimed the rumors were an attempt to ruin his career. "Since the time of Mr. Mynett’s departure from the marital home, Ms. Mynett began a negative campaign against Mr. Mynett, seemingly in an effort to ruin his career and permanently damage his relationship with [his son] and his step-daughter," court papers said.
Omar announced via an Instagram post in March that she and Mynett were married.
The National Legal and Policy Center filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission in August charging that Omar and Mynett broke the law by improperly using campaign funds to pay for Mynett to travel with her. This past quarter, Omar's campaign disclosed $9,392 worth of travel reimbursements to the E Street Group, the new disclosure shows.
Mynett's business partner, Will Hailer, defended the couple against the accusations, and painted Omar's campaign as a normal client.
"On any given day, eight or more people could be touching her account at some point, between design, digital ads, social media, email content creation, high-dollar fundraising, political support, and many other things that we provide for the campaign," Hailer told the Washington Post in March. "Similar to what we provide for countless other clients across the country."
Despite Hailer's defense, Omar's campaign has been the E Street Group's largest client since the firm's inception.
UPDATE 7:38 p.m.: This piece was updated with more accurate fundraising figures.