Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar was asked last week about allegations that she supposedly married her brother, and her response says it all.



The Star Tribune, a left-leaning paper in Omar's state of Minnesota, reports that the Democratic lawmaker has allegedly refused to answer their questions about the accusations that she committed marriage fraud.

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Her response to the very serious allegations has been total silence.

Minnesota Star-Tribune editor Kevin Diaz told PolitiFact in an interview on Thursday that Omar has not responded to multiple inquires from his office about the allegations that she married a male relative, possibly her brother, and whether she and Ahmed Hirsi, her current husband, filed joint tax returns while Omar was married to another man, Ahmed Elmi.

“Our public records searches determined that in at least one period after she married Elmi, all three (Omar, Elmi and Hirsi) used the same address in Minnesota. It raises questions about the nature of the relationship if she is living with both the person she’s married to and her eventual husband,” Diaz said.



“What’s really made it hard is that she’s been unwilling to address any of these questions. That has fueled the controversy. We quoted her at length to say that these were mere accusations, that they were unfair, and that she shouldn’t have to address them. Be that as may, there was an undisputed instance of her filing her taxes improperly. And if you’re in Congress, you should explain that to your constituents,” he continued.

" We’ve asked her these questions, and also asked her to make her father available. We’ve tried to reach Elmi. We’ve tried to reach her sisters. Her family could put this (the question of Elmi’s relationship to Omar) to rest easily. No one will talk to us. I wish we could send a reporter to Mogadishu (Somalia) but we don’t have the bandwidth,” the editor added.

President Donald Trump gave fuel to the allegations surrounding Omar’s marriage last week.



While speaking to reporters outside of the White House, the president was asked about his recent feud with Omar and the other members of "The Squad" -- Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib.



Trump replied: "There's a lot of talk about the fact that she was married to her brother. I know nothing about it. … I’m sure that somebody would be looking at that."

WATCH:

President Donald Trump on Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN): “There's a lot of talk about the fact that she was married to her brother. I know nothing about it. … I’m sure that somebody would be looking at that” pic.twitter.com/U6Vs7UpblZ

— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) July 17, 2019

There have been several reports in the media questioning Omar's marital history and whether she actually did marry her brother.

The Star Tribune published a bombshell piece stating that "new investigative documents released by a state agency have given fresh life to lingering questions about the marital history of Rep. Ilhan Omar and whether she once married a man — possibly her own brother — to skirt immigration laws."



"Sent a list of questions and a request to talk to her siblings and father, Omar declined to do so," the Tribune added. "Omar declined to make her tax and immigration records available for this report. ... Omar’s relatives could also clear the air, but they have remained silent about her marriage ... She declined to make her family available for this story."

The Washington Examiner also published a report last month offering more information on the alleged marriage to her brother and how she may have even fraudulently filed tax returns in 2014 and 2015.

Dozens of official documents suggest that Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., was living with her current husband, Ahmed Abdisalan Hirsi, throughout her entire legal marriage to Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, contradicting the story she tells to explain her multiple marriages.



Elmi is the man that critics allege is her brother, as noted by the Star Tribune.



"Omar has denied the allegations in the past, dismissing them as 'baseless rumors' first raised in an online Somali politics forum and championed by conservative bloggers during her 2016 campaign for the Minnesota House," the Tribune reported. "But she said little then or since about Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, the former husband who swept into her life in 2009 before a 2011 separation.



"The questions surfaced again this month in a state probe of campaign finance violations showing that Omar filed federal taxes in 2014 and 2015 with her current husband, Ahmed Hirsi, while she was still legally married to but separated from Elmi," the Tribune added. "Although she has legally corrected the discrepancy, she has declined to say anything about how or why it happened. The new documents also detail the Omar campaign’s efforts to keep the story of her marriage to Elmi out of the press, arguing that detailed coverage would legitimize the accusations and invade her privacy."

Omar refuses to answer questions about the matter or provide any documents that could clear up the controversy.

And the fact that Trump is now talking about it could lead to more information coming out.