WASHINGTON — Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.), chairman of the House Ethics Committee, declined to say if he thinks there should be an ethics investigation of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) for potential violations of tax law and campaign finance law.
In 2014 and 2015, Omar reportedly filed joint federal tax returns with Ahmed Abdisalan Hirsi while she was legally married to Ahmed Nur Said Elmi. Also, according to a recent court filing, Omar was having an affair with Tim Mynett, a paid campaign consultant who Omar’s campaign reimbursed for travel expenses that were allegedly not itemized.
Deutch was asked if he plans to open an investigation into Omar’s alleged violations of tax and federal election law.
“The work that we do on the Ethics Committee is — questions like that you can direct to the staff director of the committee because we are not at liberty to discuss what the committee is doing,” Deutch said.
When asked if he personally thinks there should be an ethics probe of Omar, Deutch replied, “I’m the chairman of the committee. As chairman of the committee, you’re going to have to talk to the director because that’s the way the committee operates.”
The staff director of the committee, Tom Rust, did not respond to a request for comment on the matter.
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