A long-running controversy surrounding Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) erupted back into national headlines this week after a Somali community leader publicly claimed, for the first time on record, that Omar did in fact marry her biological brother as part of an immigration fraud scheme — and openly told friends she was doing it to get him “papers” so he could stay in the United States.

In an exclusive interview, Abdihakim Osman, a well-known figure in Minneapolis’s Somali community, said Omar explained years ago that Ahmed Elmi, the man who later became her legal husband, was her brother, and that the marriage was arranged specifically to secure his U.S. status and student aid.

“She said she needed to get papers for her brother”

Osman, 40, described how Omar — then already religiously married to her first husband, Ahmed Hirsi — brought Elmi into their social circle in the late 2000s. According to Osman, both Omar and Hirsi told friends the young man was her brother, recently sent from London to Minneapolis because his family believed he was mixing with “bad influences.”

But few suspected that Omar would legally marry him.

“She said she needed to get papers for her brother to go to school,” Osman said. “We all thought she was just getting documents to allow him to stay in this country. No one knew there had been a wedding until the media turned up the certificate years later.”

Secret second marriage, no Somali witnesses

The alleged sibling marriage — conducted in 2009 by a Christian minister — stunned members of Minneapolis’s Somali community, who had attended Omar’s first, traditional Islamic wedding to Hirsi, complete with hundreds of guests from two large clans.

But her 2009 marriage to Elmi? Osman says no one in the community was invited or even aware it happened.

“When Ilhan married Hirsi, everyone was there. When she married Elmi, no one even knew about it,” Osman recalled. “She kept it quiet. If she had asked an imam, they would have recognized he was her brother.”

After the marriage, Omar and Elmi moved to Fargo to attend North Dakota State University — while, Osman maintains, Omar continued her relationship with Hirsi in Minneapolis, even having additional children with him while still legally wed to Elmi.

“They never parted.”

Omar and Elmi eventually divorced in 2017. Omar then legally married Hirsi in 2018, just ahead of her first successful congressional run — though Osman says the remarriage was merely a legal formality to match a relationship that had continued all along.

“They never parted,” he said.

Background: A tangled marital history

Omar’s marital timeline — a religious marriage, a secret civil marriage to another man, overlapping relationships, later divorces and remarriages — has fueled speculation for years that she engaged in immigration or student loan fraud. The lack of official documentation from war-torn Somalia has made confirming her family structure difficult.

The first online claims that Elmi was her brother surfaced in 2016 on Somali community forums, followed by a 2019 Minnesota Campaign Finance Board report confirming irregularities in Omar’s tax filings related to Hirsi — but no definitive proof of familial ties.

Still, Osman’s decision to go public marks the first on-record confirmation from someone within Omar’s own community that the long-rumored sibling marriage was openly discussed among friends.

Past investigations and new political fallout

Omar has repeatedly dismissed questions about the marriage as “baseless, absurd rumors” rooted in Islamophobia. Her spokesperson reiterated that she “does not comment on family or personal life.”

But Osman’s claims add new pressure amid renewed calls for federal investigation. The FBI has reportedly reviewed documents related to the marriage, though no charges have been filed. Immigration fraud carries penalties of up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The story resurfaces at a politically sensitive moment: Omar is running for re-election against multiple Democratic challengers while also navigating public scrutiny over unrelated fraud scandals in Minnesota’s Somali-American community. She has also been embroiled in previous personal controversies, including her highly publicized affair with political consultant Tim Mynett.

Osman, meanwhile, says the scandal was always discussed quietly within the community, but Omar’s growing national profile — and refusal to acknowledge inconsistencies — compelled him to speak publicly.