Baseless, Degrading, Unverified, and Quite Possibly True

 

A reporter asked President Trump, “if the administration was looking into possible immigration fraud committed by Ilhan Omar for possibly marrying her brother.”

Trump replied, “Well, there’s a lot of talk about the fact that she was married to her brother. I know nothing about it, I hear she was married to her brother. You’re asking me a question about it. I don’t know, but I’m sure there’s somebody who will be looking at that.”

This rumor has been around for a while and one would think it is something that would be easy to disprove if false. You could show pictures of your brother and husband, marriage records showing different names, etc., but we have not seen much effort by the press to clarify this. Reaction to the fact that Trump even acknowledged this reporter’s question look like this:

Saying it is “baseless” is nice, but did anyone actually do any investigation on this? It looks like some people did and it is not some simple political attack. I do not know all the facts, but the guys at Powerline have been looking into this for some time now. This article shows lots of reasons to be suspicious. Too much for me to summarize but check out the whole article on Powerline. Whatever the truth is, this does not appear to be a baseless conspiracy theory . . . or does it?

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  1. Brian Wolf Inactive
    Brian Wolf
    @BrianWolf

    I like how Trump handled this question, he was deft and politically smart here.  He did a good job with this one.

    I wish he was always on top of his game this way.

    • #1
  2. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    Vance Richards: Whatever the truth is, this does not appear to be a baseless conspiracy theory . . . or does it?

    You can tell the likelihood of how true it is by how shrill the MSM gets the deeper investigators dig into it, which they should.

    • #2
  3. Tex929rr Coolidge
    Tex929rr
    @Tex929rr

    Powerline has handled this with great care and provided copious details.  Omar’s only response has been to:

    1. Throw the racism charge out, and

    2. Hire a criminal defense lawyer to answer while carefully not responding to any allegations.  

    • #3
  4. JoelB Member
    JoelB
    @JoelB

    He said it was a fact – Hair fire time!

    Well, there’s a lot of talk about the fact that she was married to her brother. I know nothing about it,” Trump said.

    • #4
  5. Kozak Member
    Kozak
    @Kozak

    Daily Mail

     

    ‘I am legally married to one and culturally to another’: How Ilhan Omar desperately tried to shut down accusations of bigamy amid claims she was briefly married to her BROTHER to ‘commit immigration fraud’ while she was still with her current husband

     

    Sure seems to be a lot of circumstantial evidence….

    • #5
  6. DonG Coolidge
    DonG
    @DonG

    Of course it is true.   If “rule-of-law” is part of American cultural, and she is anti-American, then she must be anti-rule-of-law.  Simple logic ;)

    • #6
  7. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    Kozak (View Comment):

    Daily Mail

     

    ‘I am legally married to one and culturally to another’: How Ilhan Omar desperately tried to shut down accusations of bigamy amid claims she was briefly married to her BROTHER to ‘commit immigration fraud’ while she was still with her current husband

     

    Sure seems to be a lot of circumstantial evidence….

    An admission is circumstantial?  Hmmmm . . .

    • #7
  8. Jon1979 Inactive
    Jon1979
    @Jon1979

    Brian Wolf (View Comment):

    I like how Trump handled this question, he was deft and politically smart here. He did a good job with this one.

    I wish he was always on top of his game this way.

    Given their hatred for Trump and their potential orgasmic delight at proving him wrong on anything that involves The Squad, you’d think the media would be descending en mass on Minneapolis and London to show Ilhan Omar in no way concocted a false marriage to her brother and is living under an assumed name for immigration purposes. So if 24-48 hours from now, the best the combined forces of the media can come up with is ether Jim Acosta’s “Well she said she didn’t, so that’s that,” tweet from Wednesday, or the ever popular “Shut up!” when it comes to any further mentions of Omar’s immigration status, you’ll know they believe the report is true (and will try to drop it, but won’t be able to because Trump will keep using it for the next 15 months if they don’t investigate).

    • #8
  9. DonG Coolidge
    DonG
    @DonG

    Stad (View Comment):

    Sure seems to be a lot of circumstantial evidence….

    An admission is circumstantial? Hmmmm . .

     There is a lot of good evidence out there, including a lot of evidence that contradicts sworn statements in paperwork and immigration proceedings.  This is the nature of Millennials that document their lives on social media.  The MSM is good at hiding things that don’t fit their agenda, but those things still exist.

    • #9
  10. Zafar Member
    Zafar
    @Zafar

    Get Orly Taitz on the case.  

    • #10
  11. TBA Coolidge
    TBA
    @RobtGilsdorf

    Our crack American newsreporters have been aggressively ignoring this story from day one and they will leave no lead followed, no stone turned until we are able to put this behind us once and for all. 

    • #11
  12. Zafar Member
    Zafar
    @Zafar

    All of this is provable, right? So why don’t people who are making the accusations prove them?

    In the US people are innocent until proven guilty.  

    You have to prove that someone is a murderer, or a rapist, or a thief. Or have committed immigration fraud.

    You cant just accuse them and leave the onus of proving that they are innocent on them.  

    Well – actually you can clearly do just that, in the court of public opinion, but (1) is that ethical and (2)  does the hunger for a short term political outcome undermine some of the rights and freedoms that you currently enjoy and take for granted?

     

    • #12
  13. Kozak Member
    Kozak
    @Kozak

    Zafar (View Comment):

    All of this is provable, right? So why don’t people who are making the accusations prove them?

    In the US people are innocent until proven guilty.

    You have to prove that someone is a murderer, or a rapist, or a thief. Or have committed immigration fraud.

    You cant just accuse them and leave the onus of proving that they are innocent on them.

    Well – actually you can clearly do just that, in the court of public opinion, but (1) is that ethical and (2) does the hunger for a short term political outcome undermine some of the rights and freedoms that you currently enjoy and take for granted?

     

    That’s a legal standard.  Of course we get to ask the questions and speculate until she comes up with something to disprove the accusations that seem to have a lot of evidence to support them.  Marriage licenses, pictures, public statements, witnesses.  Conservatives have been hounded from from public life for far far less.   

    • #13
  14. Zafar Member
    Zafar
    @Zafar

    Kozak (View Comment):

    Zafar (View Comment):

    All of this is provable, right? So why don’t people who are making the accusations prove them?

    In the US people are innocent until proven guilty.

    You have to prove that someone is a murderer, or a rapist, or a thief. Or have committed immigration fraud.

    You cant just accuse them and leave the onus of proving that they are innocent on them.

    Well – actually you can clearly do just that, in the court of public opinion, but (1) is that ethical and (2) does the hunger for a short term political outcome undermine some of the rights and freedoms that you currently enjoy and take for granted?

     

    That’s a legal standard. Of course we get to ask the questions and speculate until she comes up with something to disprove the accusations that seem to have a lot of evidence to support them. Marriage licenses, pictures, public statements, witnesses. Conservatives have been hounded from from public life for far far less.

    Conservatives here talk about winning the culture. 

    I don’t see it happening this way, but perhaps I’m wrong.

    • #14
  15. Tex929rr Coolidge
    Tex929rr
    @Tex929rr

    Zafar (View Comment):

    All of this is provable, right? So why don’t people who are making the accusations prove them?

    In the US people are innocent until proven guilty.

    You have to prove that someone is a murderer, or a rapist, or a thief. Or have committed immigration fraud.

    You cant just accuse them and leave the onus of proving that they are innocent on them.

    Well – actually you can clearly do just that, in the court of public opinion, but (1) is that ethical and (2) does the hunger for a short term political outcome undermine some of the rights and freedoms that you currently enjoy and take for granted?

    So read this, and tell us what more constitutes proof:

    https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2019/07/david-steinberg-tying-up-loose-threads-in-the-curious-case.php

    • #15
  16. Zafar Member
    Zafar
    @Zafar

    Immigration fraud hinges on proving that Ilan Omar and Nur Elmi are biological brother and sister.  There’s no proof of that.  

    Referring to someone as my sister or my father in conversation, or on social media, is not proof.

    People say ‘hey brother’ to each other all the time. It doesn’t mean they have the same mother and father.  

    Does it?

    • #16
  17. GrannyDude Member
    GrannyDude
    @GrannyDude

    Tex929rr (View Comment):

    Zafar (View Comment):

    All of this is provable, right? So why don’t people who are making the accusations prove them?

    In the US people are innocent until proven guilty.

    You have to prove that someone is a murderer, or a rapist, or a thief. Or have committed immigration fraud.

    You cant just accuse them and leave the onus of proving that they are innocent on them.

    Well – actually you can clearly do just that, in the court of public opinion, but (1) is that ethical and (2) does the hunger for a short term political outcome undermine some of the rights and freedoms that you currently enjoy and take for granted?

    So read this, and tell us what more constitutes proof:

    https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2019/07/david-steinberg-tying-up-loose-threads-in-the-curious-case.php

    On the cheesier cop shows, the detective who wants to pursue an investigation is often told, by someone who in real life would know better,   “but you don’t have proof!” 

    As if “proof” is the starting point of an investigation 

    If reporter David Steinberg was asking a judge to sentence Omar to a prison term, then sure. He’d  have to prove her guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. 

    As it happens, Steinberg isn’t even a detective—just an investigative reporter doing what they do, with what has sadly become unusual diligence and tenacity. 

    But here in America—who knows about Oz?—a police officer begins with a reasonable suspicion that a crime has taken place, and he gathers evidence. Sometimes there isn’t any. Sometimes there’s a lot. 

    The series at Powerline offers considerable evidence for the proposition that Ilhan Omar committed quite a few, y’know,  felonies. If I were Omar, and could  demonstrate that I had not in fact committed felonies—and, by the way, “prove” at the same time that David Steinberg and Powerline and Donald Trump are all exactly what Squad fans believe them to be anyway—- I think I’d be inclined to produce  it.  How hard can it be to prove that your first legal husband was not, in fact, your brother? It might be tough for me personally, since my first husband is dead, but I could manage it. Omar’s first husband is alive. A simple 23-and-me would take care of it.

    • #17
  18. Zafar Member
    Zafar
    @Zafar

    I don’t know GD.  Obama never quite convinced some people that he wasn’t born in Kenya.  Appeasement doesn’t work with bullies.  ??

    Or…..she married a British citizen to get him into the US.  Also possible.  Though a bit unnecessary, also.  ??

    • #18
  19. Tex929rr Coolidge
    Tex929rr
    @Tex929rr

    Zafar (View Comment):

    Immigration fraud hinges on proving that Ilan Omar and Nur Elmi are biological brother and sister. There’s no proof of that.

    Referring to someone as my sister or my father in conversation, or on social media, is not proof.

    People say ‘hey brother’ to each other all the time. It doesn’t mean they have the same mother and father.

    Does it?

    I can’t find this anything other than purposeful obtuseness.  Sure, why should we take her at her word? 

    Here are the circumstances:

    1. Someone notices some very strange connections in Omar’s past.  Local newspapers and reporters take a pass because they are too invested in the wonderful success story of an East African immigrant.

    2. Some independent writers pursue the story.  Omar’s response is to say “shut up” and “racist”.  Meanwhile her political team discusses how it’s too hard to explain, and later their internal emails surface.

    3.  She hires a criminal defense attorney to keep saying “shut up” and “racist” to people questioning her story.

    Powerline isn’t asking for anything but Omar to actually answer some questions.  

    • #19
  20. Jon1979 Inactive
    Jon1979
    @Jon1979

    Zafar (View Comment):

    I don’t know GD. Obama never quite convinced some people that he wasn’t born in Kenya. Appeasement doesn’t work with bullies. ??

    Or…..she married a British citizen to get him into the US. Also possible. Though a bit unnecessary, also. ??

    If nothing else, the reporting does seem to put Omar in the Al Capone position of being caught on tax fraud charges over her IRS filings when she entered joint returns with a man she says she was not married to. But it will be up to the Justice Department or the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Minneapolis-St. Paul area to decide whether or not to move forward on that, as it will with the immigration fraud issue (since reporters have no legal power to subpoena or prosecute, they can simply present the information they’ve gathered and readers or viewers then can make their own decisions).

    • #20
  21. GrannyDude Member
    GrannyDude
    @GrannyDude

    Zafar (View Comment):

    I don’t know GD. Obama never quite convinced some people that he wasn’t born in Kenya. Appeasement doesn’t work with bullies. ??

    Or…..she married a British citizen to get him into the US. Also possible. Though a bit unnecessary, also. ??

    I think your knee is jerking, Zafar.    I think if Omar was from, say, Poland and a Republican, there would be more than enough here for the MSM to take an interest in. 

    And it would be very, very easy to prove these people wrong if they’re just bullies. 

    By the way, I heard the reporter interviewed on the radio the other day. He didn’t sound like a bully. He was sympathetic to the first —alleged—“fraud,” which was that Omar, her sister and father posed as members of an unrelated family in order to piggyback onto their admission (en famille) to the US.  This was, evidently, a rampant crime (didn’t even bother with the scare quotes there) for obvious reasons: Somali refugees were pretty darned eager to get out of the refugee camp and into a better place (however “disappointing” she might find it now). Ilan was twelve years old at the time. That means she was old enough to know about the fraud, of course, but she was nonetheless a child going along with adults. 

    If this is true—again, a quick DNA test could prove it one way or another—she should have disclosed it during her campaign out of a sense of basic honesty. I can guarantee a sympathetic citizenry would have greeted her disclosure with universal forgiveness. She’d be the sort of “dreamer” we’d all get behind. 

    The idea, however, is that she relied on her adopted identity when fraudulently marrying her biological brother for the purposes of exploiting the benefits that the U.S. offered that England, presumably, did not. Since we are no longer talking about rescuing someone from a third world hellhole, she obviously has to deny the original fraud as strenuously as the subsequent one(s). 

     What I found interesting about the Powerline story was Steinberg’s contention that this is an open secret in the Somali community in Minnesota. Or: “not even an open secret…not a secret at all,” as Steinberg said in the interview I heard. Apparently, if you can read Somali (or perhaps Arabic) it’s openly discussed on social media.  And some Somalis, at least, aren’t all that pleased with the way Ilan’s family (and “family”) played the system.  It’s telling (and somehow encouraging) that Somali immigrants who obey the rules (at least, more or less) resent those who break them.

     

    • #21
  22. Zafar Member
    Zafar
    @Zafar

    I didn’t find it persuasive re the brother and sister bit, which was the ‘hook’.

    I did think the legal marriage/cultural marriage stuff was a bit odd, but not as titillating as immigration fraud.

    I have a feeling this ‘married her brother’ thing will hang around for a while. When Ilhan Omar runs for President it can be her equivalent of Obama’s secret birth in Kenya or Trump’s tax returns. Every candidate needs one of these.

    • #22
  23. Zafar Member
    Zafar
    @Zafar

    GrannyDude (View Comment):

    Zafar (View Comment):

    I don’t know GD. Obama never quite convinced some people that he wasn’t born in Kenya. Appeasement doesn’t work with bullies. ??

    Or…..she married a British citizen to get him into the US. Also possible. Though a bit unnecessary, also. ??

    I think your knee is jerking, Zafar.

    Perhaps. 

    https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2019/jul/18/did-ilhan-omar-marry-her-brother-her-hometown-news/

    From which:

    Since the article came out, no one has come forward with smoking-gun, decisive proof that would make it look like we missed something. You see circumstantial evidence that begs for some kind of explanation from a member of Congress, but there’s no smoking gun that she married her brother.

    • #23
  24. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    Zafar (View Comment):

    All of this is provable, right? So why don’t people who are making the accusations prove them?

    In the US people are innocent until proven guilty.

    Because under some circumstances (like trying to take down a leftist idol), trying to prove the truth of the allegations gets you accused, tried, and convicted of being a racist.

    Put another way, trying to find the truth is itself proof you are guilty . . .

    • #24
  25. Stina Member
    Stina
    @CM

    How did they connect Shara Noor to Ilan?

    Is that a knowable? I’d think that would be far more public, considering she was one of the two in the “workplace shooting” in CA.

    • #25
  26. Miffed White Male Member
    Miffed White Male
    @MiffedWhiteMale

    Stad (View Comment):
    In the US people are innocent until proven guilty.

    In *court* people are innocent until proven guilty.

    But OJ still killed two people.  And I get to say so.

     

    • #26
  27. Vance Richards Inactive
    Vance Richards
    @VanceRichards

    Jon1979 (View Comment):

    Zafar (View Comment):

    I don’t know GD. Obama never quite convinced some people that he wasn’t born in Kenya. Appeasement doesn’t work with bullies. ??

    Or…..she married a British citizen to get him into the US. Also possible. Though a bit unnecessary, also. ??

    If nothing else, the reporting does seem to put Omar in the Al Capone position of being caught on tax fraud charges over her IRS filings when she entered joint returns with a man she says she was not married to. But it will be up to the Justice Department or the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Minneapolis-St. Paul area to decide whether or not to move forward on that, as it will with the immigration fraud issue (since reporters have no legal power to subpoena or prosecute, they can simply present the information they’ve gathered and readers or viewers then can make their own decisions).

    She did file a joint tax return with her current husband while legally married to her other husband, which is wrong whether or not that man is her brother. Considering the small monetary amounts, she will just have to pay the back taxes and a fine. I doubt we will hear more about that as tax filings are meant to be private. 

    • #27
  28. DrewInWisconsin Member
    DrewInWisconsin
    @DrewInWisconsin

    GrannyDude (View Comment):
    What I found interesting about the Powerline story was Steinberg’s contention that this is an open secret in the Somali community in Minnesota. Or: “not even an open secret…not a secret at all,” as Steinberg said in the interview I heard. Apparently, if you can read Somali (or perhaps Arabic) it’s openly discussed on social media. And some Somalis, at least, aren’t all that pleased with the way Ilan’s family (and “family”) played the system. It’s telling (and somehow encouraging) that Somali immigrants who obey the rules (at least, more or less) resent those who break them.

    https://pjmedia.com/davidsteinberg/ilhan-omar-happened-because-media-chose-to-lie-to-you/

    • #28
  29. Zafar Member
    Zafar
    @Zafar

    This is really funny:

    https://learnsomali.tumblr.com/post/59832863860/aboweabayo

     

    • #29
  30. Jon1979 Inactive
    Jon1979
    @Jon1979

    Vance Richards (View Comment):

    Jon1979 (View Comment):

    Zafar (View Comment):

    I don’t know GD. Obama never quite convinced some people that he wasn’t born in Kenya. Appeasement doesn’t work with bullies. ??

    Or…..she married a British citizen to get him into the US. Also possible. Though a bit unnecessary, also. ??

    If nothing else, the reporting does seem to put Omar in the Al Capone position of being caught on tax fraud charges over her IRS filings when she entered joint returns with a man she says she was not married to. But it will be up to the Justice Department or the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Minneapolis-St. Paul area to decide whether or not to move forward on that, as it will with the immigration fraud issue (since reporters have no legal power to subpoena or prosecute, they can simply present the information they’ve gathered and readers or viewers then can make their own decisions).

    She did file a joint tax return with her current husband while legally married to her other husband, which is wrong whether or not that man is her brother. Considering the small monetary amounts, she will just have to pay the back taxes and a fine. I doubt we will hear more about that as tax filings are meant to be private.

    The tax filing, though, does open an avenue for the feds to look at why she had the marital situation she did that led to the problem with her return. Whether or not they opt to do anything with it is up to them (and honestly, if I’m Nancy Pelosi, I’d love to see the feds do it, because then you can bash the Trump Administration over their action while at the same time having the No. 2 headache behind AOC in her House Democratic caucus taken out of action).

    • #30
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