A paper trail Fox News Digital obtained this week confirms what critics of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., have argued for years: Minnesota Republican state lawmakers didn't just complain about her tax filings — they formally reported them to the IRS.
According to the correspondence obtained by Fox News Digital, a group of ten Minnesota Republican state representatives sent a letter dated Aug. 6, 2019, to then-IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig requesting a "detailed reexamination" of Omar's tax filings. A parallel letter went the same month to then-Minnesota Department of Revenue Commissioner Cynthia Bauerly asking for a state-level review of the same returns.
The signers were Reps. Steve Drazkowski, Linda Runbeck, Glenn Gruenhagen, Shane Mekeland, John Poston, Eric Lucero, Duane Quam, Tim Miller, Cal Bahr, and Jeremy Munson, per Fox News Digital.
What the State Board Found
The lawmakers' request rested on a June 6, 2019, report from the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board. That report indicated Omar filed joint federal tax returns in 2014 and 2015 with Ahmed Hirsi — despite being legally married at the time to another man, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi.
The joint returns surfaced during the board's examination of a $1,500 expense tied to Omar's campaign committee. The board was investigating whether the expenditure was a legitimate campaign-related cost or whether campaign funds had paid for services that benefited Omar personally. The payment was part of a larger $2,250 reimbursement to the Kjellberg Law Office for legal and other services.
In response to the board's questions, Omar's campaign committee explained that the Kjellberg Law Office had retained the accounting firm Frederick & Rosen to obtain and review financial records as part of the committee's efforts to respond to allegations surrounding Omar's marital history. According to the committee's explanation, Frederick & Rosen prepared releases for Omar and Hirsi to sign so the firm could obtain copies of their filed joint federal income tax returns for 2014 and 2015 from the IRS.
The board concluded the committee had not demonstrated that the $1,500 expense benefited the campaign and required Omar to reimburse the committee. It also required repayment of campaign funds used for certain travel, including trips to Boston, New York, and Washington, D.C. The board rejected an allegation that the money had paid for Omar's personal divorce proceeding. Omar's own lawyer, Carla Kjellberg, acknowledged a personal dimension during the proceedings, Fox News Digital reported.
Per Newsweek's reporting, Omar married Hirsi in 2002 in their Muslim faith tradition, and the relationship ended in that tradition in 2008. She then legally married Elmi in February 2009.
The Wider Federal Scrutiny
The 2019 letters are not the only cloud over Omar. Fox News Digital reported that on Oct. 12, 2026, Homeland Security Investigations agents executed a judicially authorized search warrant at the Washington, D.C., residence Omar shares with her husband, political consultant Tim Mynett. Agents confiscated her phone, passport, and computer and obtained a DNA sample, according to the outlet.
"Today in the Washington, D.C. area, Homeland Security Investigations executed a judicially authorized search warrant secured by the Department of Justice. This enforcement action is part of an ongoing federal investigation," a Department of Justice spokesperson said, as the New York Post reported.
Days after the search, Omar's sister, Sahra Noor, voluntarily spoke with federal investigators, per Fox News Digital. Omar has not been charged with a crime.
The congresswoman nevertheless won a fifth House term on election night, defeating Republican John Nagel, a 30-year state trooper, in Minnesota's 5th Congressional District. An Instagram post indexed this week shows a caption beginning, "Representative Ilhan Omar, D-Minnesota, reported that her ..." — the post does not add verified detail beyond what has already been reported.
The timeline matters: the state board flagged the joint returns in 2019, Republican lawmakers formally referred them to the IRS and state revenue officials that August, and the same filings now sit inside a federal criminal immigration fraud probe that included a search of her home. Whether the IRS ever acted on the 2019 referral is not yet known.
Our Take
Here's the part the legacy media will bury: this wasn't a rumor, a blog post, or a partisan whisper campaign. Ten elected Minnesota Republicans put their names on a letter to the IRS commissioner and asked for a "detailed reexamination" — because a state board had already found Omar signed joint tax returns with a man she wasn't legally married to. That is a documented, paper-trailed referral, and it sat in a file while the press spent years telling you the questions about Omar were conspiracy theories.
Now the questions have caught up with the answers. A federal judge signed off on a search warrant at her home. Agents walked out with her phone, her passport, her computer, and a DNA sample. Her own sister has reportedly spoken with investigators. And the voters of Minnesota's Fifth District handed her another term anyway — which tells you everything about how little accountability the machine demands of its favorites.
The IRS referral was made in 2019. Seven years later, we still don't know whether anyone at the agency lifted a finger. Americans deserve to know whether the tax code is enforced equally — or whether some members of Congress get a pass because of the letter after their name. If the 2019 referral was ignored, who ignored it, and why? That's the question every patriot should be asking tonight.
