Minnesota Dem Breaks Ranks: Omar Brother-Marriage Claim 'Almost Certainly True'

A well-connected Minnesota Democrat is breaking ranks to declare that Rep. Ilhan Omar almost certainly married her brother to commit immigration fraud — and the same establishment press that spent years dismissing the story as a right-wing conspiracy is running out of places to hide.

Joe Radinovich, a former Minnesota state representative who ran Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey's campaign and served as his chief of staff, posted on X Thursday that Democrats need to stop circling the wagons. "Democrats should understand that the allegation is almost certainly true—whatever conclusion they draw from that point could vary—and her denials calling it a right-wing, Islamophobic or racist conspiracy are almost certainly not," Radinovich wrote.

He didn't stop at the marriage fraud allegation. On Omar's finances, Radinovich warned that "no meaningful questions have been answered publicly, and where any objective look at the evidence doesn't look…great." When a former Omar campaign operative, Briana Rose Lee, called his posts "a baseless and manufactured witch hunt" and "a new low," Radinovich shot back: "You're right. I'm not stupid." He acknowledged skepticism of the Trump DOJ's timing but noted "it's notable a DC judge signed off on it" before concluding: "I'm pretty confident this specific allegation is true." As he put it plainly: "Vibes is what it would take to believe her at this point."

The core allegation: Omar married Ahmed Nur Said Elmi in 2009. Multiple lines of evidence — including shared patronymics in their names indicating the same father and grandfather — point to Elmi being her brother. The marriage lasted eight years. They reportedly lived together for only the first two. After Elmi obtained a green card through the marriage, he applied for permanent residence but fled to England rather than provide evidence the marriage was legitimate, according to Breitbart.

Now there's another wrinkle. Elmi identified himself as "a gay man of the East African diaspora" in an August academic paper on queer violence in Kenya — a detail first reported by the Daily Caller. Even setting aside the brother question, a marriage between Omar and a self-identified gay man who abandoned the country rather than prove the relationship's legitimacy is, at minimum, immigration fraud.

Federal investigators continue probing Omar's immigration history and finances. The recent raid on her Washington, D.C., residence was signed off on by a federal judge. The New York Post notes the investigation actually started under the Obama administration — a detail Barack Obama didn't mention when he called the probe "appalling."

HotAir's Ed Morrissey connected the break to a broader unraveling in Minneapolis, where Somali community political power was built in part on fraud — billions stolen from federal and state programs — with some proceeds flowing back into DFL politics. Now Attorney General Keith Ellison is participating in federal fraud raids, and Radinovich is telling the truth about Omar. The political shield is cracking.

And the press? PowerLine Blog broke this story nearly a decade ago. They were smeared as racists and conspiracy theorists for their trouble. CNN, the New York Times, and the Washington Post looked the other way. As Breitbart's John Nolte put it: "It's all so broken and corrupt — all of it, everything."

The question isn't whether the allegations are true. By the admission of Omar's own party, they almost certainly are. The question is whether anyone in Washington will enforce the law against one of their own — or whether immigration fraud is only a crime when the wrong people commit it.