TMZ broke the news this morning that Minnesota Fifth District Rep. Ilhan Omar has filed for divorce from husband Ahmed Hirsi, whom she just got around to marrying last year. Hirsi is the father of her three children.

The Star Tribune caught up with the news this afternoon in a story by Patrick Coolican. Omar’s petition for dissolution of her marriage has been posted online here.

Omar was previously married to one Ahmed Nur Said Elmi by a Christian minister in 2009. I believe Elmi is her brother and she entered into that marriage for fraudulent purposes. Omar legally dissolved that marriage in 2017. Omar released one public statement written for her by a political consultant regarding her tangled marital history in 2016.

Minnesota is a no-fault state when it comes to divorce, yet Omar’s attorney released a public statement that implicitly apportions blame for the dissolution of Omar’s marriage — not to herself or her husband, but rather to “political opponents and media.” I kid you not:

As with all marriages, this is intensely personal and a difficult time for their family. For years, Ilhan and Ahmed have been the object of speculation and inuendo [sic] from political opponents and the media. This has taken a significant toll on Ilhan, Ahmed, and their three children. Just like any other family navigating this kind of transition, Ilhan wishes to have their privacy respected for themselves and their children and will not be commenting any further.

I offer the following brief comments:

• The petition for dissolution states in paragraph 1 that Omar has “not been known by other names.” We do not believe this to be the case. Her father goes by the name Nur Omar Mohamed. She reportedly has six siblings. Her only acknowledged sibling is Sahra Noor. We have yet to meet a sibling named Omar.

• Omar’s statement omits any mention of her affair with fundraiser Tim Mynett, first reported this past July by the Daily Mail.

• Omar’s refusal to respond to any questions beyond her statement is consistent with past practice. She has never spoken in substance about any of the multifarious issues raised by her marital history in her own words.

• The Star Tribune continues to take Omar’s 2016 statement at face value, reciting that “[t]his is Omar’s second split from Hirsi…She later returned to Hirsi and had a third child with him.”

• The Star Tribune is nevertheless tired of being played for a chump. Coolican notes: “This again raised questions about her marriage to Elmi and whether it was sincere or some effort to help Elmi’s immigration status, or even whether Elmi is her brother. She has denied Elmi is her brother but declined to answer any questions about the circumstances of her marriage to him.”

• Her 2016 statement to the contrary notwithstanding, the evidence strongly suggests that Omar never split from Hirsi before her election to Congress last year. Their alleged 2011 divorce “in their faith tradition” appears to be a fabrication.

• We reported that Omar was in fact divorced from Hirsi “in her faith tradition” earlier this year after Hirsi learned of her affair with Mynett.

• As I noted in “Omar’s lies proliferate,” Omar lied about the state of her marriage when asked about it by WCCO reporter Esme Murphy. Murphy won’t hold it against her.

• Mukhtar Ibrahim is a local reporter who has worked for Minnesota Public Radio and the Star Tribune. He is an Omar fanboy. When Omar wanted to tamp down the stories regarding her affair, Ibrahim sought to convey the impression that all was well in her marriage. (He has blocked me on Twitter, but Ibrahim’s tweet is or was here.)

• Omar is in Africa. She signed the petition for dissolution in Burkina Faso. I would guess the timing is not coincidental. She prefers to be unavailable for comment.

• My sources tell me that Hirsi was the brains behind Omar’s political career. She has used, abused, and dumped him. Although she is now the sole breadwinner in the family and he has devoted himself to raising their their three kids, she expressly seeks to deny him any award of spousal maintenance. Now that is cold.