A new potential scandal is emerging for Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. Reports claim that she carried on an affair with her married campaign strategist that led to his messy divorce.
The Daily Mail reported that the freshman congresswoman was named in newly-filed divorce papers from Beth Mynett, wife of Democratic fundraiser Timothy Mynett. In the court filings, Beth said that her husband had been carrying on an affair with Omar and ultimately decided to end the marriage over it.
The report claimed that Omar and her campaign strategist carried on the affair under his wife and 13-year-old son’s noses, only coming to light when he decided to make a “shocking declaration of love” for the Democratic representative from Minnesota.
“He is also said to have taken their son to formally meet Omar at the Mynett family’s favorite restaurant in Washington, D.C., when the reproductive health expert was out of town,” the report said of Timothy Mynett. “Mynett’s confession brought the couple’s seven-year marriage to an abrupt end and the former spouses will meet at the city’s Superior Court in October to thrash out divorce terms.”
There may have been some public evidence of the affair as well, as The Daily Mail noted that Omar was seen holding hands with a “mystery man” outside a Los Angeles restaurant in March. The report said the man was Timothy Mynett, who prevented an onlooker from taking video of their apparent date.
Beth Mynett was expected to tell the court that her husband’s affair exposed the family to potential media backlash and even put them in physical danger, as Omar has received a number of death threats after coming under attack from Donald Trump.
EXCLUSIVE: My husband dumped me for Rep. Ilhan Omar, DC mom says in divorce filing https://t.co/nCLGv9MJ6H pic.twitter.com/nmjlJ4ORN7
— New York Post (@nypost) August 27, 2019
Ilhan Omar has generated considerable attention despite only being in Congress for a few months. In the 2018 midterm elections, she became the first-ever woman Muslim to be elected to the House of Representatives, and she took a national stature with her attacks on Donald Trump.
Omar has become a favorite target of the right as well, including unproven rumors that she married her brother in order to help gain citizenship after emigrating to the United States from Somalia. She is a frequent target of Donald Trump, including a recent tweet from the president telling Omar and three other Democratic congresswomen to go back to their “original” countries. The tweet was widely decried as racist, though Trump stood by his statement.
