A friend and former close associate of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) has blown the whistle to confirm publicly that the congresswoman married her biological brother, according to a bombshell new report.
Abdihakim Osman is publicly alleging for the first time that Omar once identified the man who later became her second husband as her brother.
Osman says Omar married her brother, Ahmed Elmi, to “get him papers” so he could stay in the United States, illegally manipulating immigration laws.
The claim renews long-standing questions surrounding the Minnesota Democrat’s marital history.
In an interview with the Daily Mail, Osman said Omar told friends years ago that Elmi, whom she quietly married in 2009, was her sibling.
Osman said the revelation stunned members of Minneapolis’ Somali community, who later learned about the marriage only after reporters uncovered the civil registration.
It was apparently common knowledge among the Somali community that Omar and Elmi were brother and sister, but their marriage was kept secret.
“No one knew there had been a wedding until the media turned up the marriage certificate years later,” Osman, 40, told the outlet.
The allegation is poised to reignite scrutiny of Omar, who has repeatedly declined to explain the circumstances of her marriage to Elmi.
Omar has previously called reports suggesting she married her brother “baseless, absurd rumors,” but has refused further comment.
Her spokesman reiterated to the Daily Mail that Omar “does not address matters involving her family or personal life” and is “focused on the work her constituents sent her to Washington to accomplish.”
A Marriage Minneapolis Never Saw
According to Osman, Omar and her first husband, Ahmed Hirsi, known in the community by his nickname “Southside,” routinely described Elmi as Omar’s brother when he arrived in Minneapolis in the late 2000s.
Osman said Elmi stood out socially.
“He was very feminine in the way he dressed — he would wear light lipstick and pink clothes and very, very, short shorts in the summer,” Osman said.
“People started whispering about him.”
He added that both Omar and Hirsi explained that Elmi had been living in London but had fallen in with “bad influences,” prompting the family to send him to Minneapolis “as ‘rehab.’”
Osman said Omar’s marriage to Elmi was kept entirely hidden from the wider community.
“When [Hirsi] and Ilhan got married, a lot of people were invited,” he said.
“It was a big Islamic wedding uniting two large clans in the Minneapolis community.
“I would say there were 100-150 people there.
“But when she married Elmi, no one even knew about it.”
At the time, Osman said Hirsi was far more prominent locally than Omar, making the secrecy surrounding Elmi’s involvement even more striking.
Longstanding Questions, Few Answers
Rumors that Elmi and Omar are biological siblings have circulated for nearly a decade, though turmoil in Somalia has made obtaining definitive records difficult.
The first public allegation surfaced in 2016 on a Somali-American message board and was later followed by reporting that Elmi enrolled at North Dakota State University shortly after the marriage.
The New York Post reported last month that the FBI met with a Minneapolis source who provided “a trove of documents” related to the marriage.
According to the report, any findings would be shared with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Education.
Marriage fraud convictions can result in up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Public records show Omar and Elmi married on February 12, 2009, at a Hennepin County office in Eden Prairie.
Although Omar has said she and Hirsi separated in 2008, their religious marriage was never legally registered, nor was their separation legally recorded.
The marriage certificate lists Omar and Elmi as residing in Columbia Heights, just north of Minneapolis.
The ceremony was officiated by Wilecia Harris, a Christian minister.
Contacted previously by the Daily Mail, Harris declined to discuss why a Muslim couple requested that she perform the ceremony.
Ongoing Silence
Omar has consistently declined to answer substantive questions about her marriage to Elmi, calling previous inquiries politically motivated or rooted in bigotry.
Still, her refusal to address inconsistencies has fueled ongoing calls for clarity, particularly as federal agencies reportedly examine newly provided documents.
For now, Omar’s office maintains she will not comment on “family or personal life” as scrutiny continues.
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