Report: Omar Under Investigation for Accusations She Spent $6K in Campaign Funds for Personal Use
Representative Ilhan Omar is awaiting the results of an investigation into allegations she spent $6,000 in campaign funds for her personal use, Washington D.C.’s local ABC affiliate reports.
Authorities are expected to issue rulings in the next month to six weeks on two complaints filed last year with the Minnesota Campaign Finance Board against the Minnesota Democrat by Republican state lawmaker Representative Steve Drazkowski.
Drazkowski accused Omar of siphoning money from her campaign fund to pay her divorce attorney as well as to travel to Boston and Estonia.
“I had observed a long pattern,” Drazkowski said. “Representative 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.”
Omar fielded questions on the investigation, and the campaign finance board followed standard practice and declined to confirm whether a probe was ongoing.
Drazkowski claimed Omar’s critics are afraid to speak out against her because of her status as the first Somalian-American to be elected to Congress.
“There’s a political fear that people have,” Drazkowski said, “of being called a name, being called a bigot, being called racist, being called Islamophobic.”
Omar, who represents Minnesota’s 5th District including Minneapolis, drew heavy criticism from her party’s leadership earlier this year when she suggested that Jewish U.S. citizens pay “allegiance to a foreign country,” as well as several other remarks deemed anti-Semitic by both sides of the aisle.
Republicans have pushed for Omar to be stripped from her spot on the House Foreign Affairs Committee because of her comments.
