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Ilhan Omar violated campaign finance rules, probe finds, as more questions about tax filings arise

I'm like Hillary because I can't be touched.

U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN) has made top headlines for some controversial topics. Here is everything you need to know about her journey from being born in Somalia to becoming a U.S. Representative.

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., repeatedly violated state rules when she used campaign funds to pay for personal out-of-state travel as well as help on her tax returns and must reimburse her former campaign committee nearly $3,500, Minnesota campaign finance officials ruled Thursday.
The Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board said the first-term congresswoman also must pay the state a $500 civil penalty for using campaign money to travel to Florida, where she accepted an honorarium.
"Rep. Omar must personally reimburse the Omar committee $3,469.23," the report concludes. "This reimbursement payment is the total amount of campaign funds that were used for purposes not permitted by statute in 2016 and 2017. Rep. Omar must provide documentation within 30 days from the date of this order showing the deposit of the reimbursement into the Omar committee’s account."
Additionally, conservative commentators pointed out that the Board's report revealed Omar and her current husband, Ahmed Hirsi, filed joint tax returns in 2014 and 2015, when Omar was reportedly married to another man. Omar engaged in a civil marriage with Ahmed Nur Said Elmi in 2009, and the couple separated in 2011 without formally petitioning for divorce until 2017.
Prior to her marriage with Elmi, Omar had reportedly wed Hirsi in the Muslim "faith tradition," but the couple separated shortly afterwards. Omar did not officially marry Hirsi until 2018, after reconciling with him and splitting with Elmi.
Tax experts say the IRS only permits joint filings if a couple is in a state that legally recognizes the couple as married.
"Time to get federal IRS officials involved?" asked conservative blogger Michelle Malkin. "What say you all?"
"A sitting congresswoman may have filed EIGHT YEARS of fraudulent, felonious, tax returns," added writer David Steinberg, who authored a Twitter thread flagging the issue.
'The crisis committee had Frederick & Rosen prepare releases for Rep. Omar and Mr. Hirsi to sign in order for Frederick & Rosen to obtain Rep. Omar’s and Mr. Hirsi’s filed joint tax returns for 2014 and 2015," the report notes. "Frederick & Rosen then reviewed the documents obtained from the Internal Revenue Service on behalf of the Omar committee. However, there is no substantive evidence in the record to show that the services benefitted the Omar committee, and the Omar committee has failed to prove, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the services from Frederick & Rosen were a permitted noncampaign disbursement under Minnesota Statutes section 211B.12. Rep. Omar must reimburse the committee the $1,500 that was paid to the Kjellberg Law Firm for the services from Frederick & Rosen, Ltd."
That reference to Omar and Hirsi's joint filing, however, was not investigated or addressed further in the report.
The board found that Omar's campaign bought her a plane ticket to Boston, where she spoke at a political rally; paid for a hotel in Washington, D.C., where Omar participated in an interview for the United Nations Foundation's Girl UP conference; and covered her travel to Chicago to accept an award and attend a fundraising luncheon.
Under Minnesota law, campaign trips must be related to serving in office. Omar was a state representative from Minneapolis at the time of the violations. She was elected to the U.S. House last November.
Republican state Rep. Steve Drazkowski initially raised the complaints against Omar, suggesting that she used $2,250 in campaign funds to pay a lawyer for her divorce proceedings. Omar has said those payments to her attorney were campaign-related fees.
The board found the payment was actually reimbursement to two other law firms for work related to immigration and tax documents. The board also determined that $1,500 spent to correct an issue on Omar's tax return was not a campaign-related expense and must be returned.
According to the board, evidence indicates that the $2,250 was not payment for Omar's marital dissolution. The board directed Omar to file an amended report with more information about the law firm payments.
Omar had called the claims politically motivated. In a statement, her congressional campaign said she is "glad this process is complete" and that she intends to comply with the board's findings.
Omar also claimed, "We have been collaborative in this process and are glad the report showed that none of the money was used for personal use, as was initially alleged."
However, the report specifically found that there was "some personal benefit to Rep. Omar from the [legal] services."
Drazkowski said in a statement that the results provide "no reassurance to Minnesotans," and the report "raises even more troubling questions."
Fox News' Sam Dorman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

CNN’s Don Lemon laments Trump-era ‘toxicity’ and trolls, says he may move on: reports

Can't take the heat?

The news – plus barbs from social media trolls and other critics -- may be too much for CNN’s Don Lemon to bear much longer.
The host of “CNN Tonight” told an audience in New York City on Thursday that the current “level of toxicity” in society – which he attributed to the Trump presidency – has him questioning whether he’ll still be on the air when the 2020 presidential election rolls around, according to reports.
“I don’t know if it’s worth this level of toxicity,” the 53-year-old Lemon said about continuing in his current position, the Daily Beast reported.
“I’m 10 years older than when he rode down the escalator in July 2015,” Lemon added, referring to Donald Trump's campaign announcement four years ago.
Lemon made the remarks at the Financial Times’ “Future of News” conference.
The anchor also spoke about the negative, unsolicited feedback he sometimes receives.
“I was doing a shoot in the park the other day and someone shouted at me, ‘I’m sick of watching you. We built this country. I can’t wait for CNN to fire your black a--, you f----t,'” he recalled, according to Deadline.
“So, all of those sorts of people call you on the phone and say those things, or they write you. I don’t go on social media anymore, it’s so toxic,” he added.
Lemon went on to blame the Trump era, and even the president himself.
“I’m black and gay on cable television in prime time — a unicorn — and I’m a target of the right, a target of white extremists, neo-Nazis and of the president,” Lemon said, according to Deadline.
He added later, “ I wonder how long I will continue to do this particular job,” the Daily Beast reported.
Lemon speculated he might be happier as a celebrity chef, or perhaps doing journalism “in a different way.”

Mexico deploys military to curb migration, reportedly offers major concessions as Trump tariffs loom

Mexican authorities stop a migrant caravan that had earlier crossed the Mexico - Guatemala border, near Metapa, Chiapas state, Mexico, Wednesday, June 5, 2019. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

With just days to go until the Trump administration is set to impose punishing tariffs on Mexico unless the country halts the unprecedented flow of illegal immigrants across the southern border, numerous signs that Mexico would capitulate emerged Thursday -- but it remained unclear Friday morning whether their efforts would satisfy the White House.
Reports in the evening indicated that Mexico's negotiators with Washington have offered to immediately deploy 6,000 National Guard troops to the border with Guatemala. Additionally, Mexico has reportedly agreed to a major overhaul of reasonable asylum protocols, which would require asylum applicants to seek permanent refuge in the first country they arrive in after fleeing their home countries.
For virtually all Central American migrants, that country would not be the United States. The Trump administration has already begun requiring asylum applicants to wait in Mexico while their claims are processed, saying too many applicants were using the system fraudulently to escape into the country. Last month, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied a request to stop that practice temporarily.
However, two administration officials tell Fox News that while talks have been going well with Mexico, and that Mexico is making some fresh proposals, there is not yet a deal that U.S. officials are sure to imminently accept.
Also on Thursday, Mexico's financial intelligence agency announced it had frozen the bank accounts of 26 people who it claimed "have presumably participated in migrant smuggling and the organization of illegal migrant caravans."
The agency said it had detected money transfers from central Mexico to six Mexican border cities presumably related to the caravans.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador insisted on Thursday that the Mexican government does not "act against anybody to please any foreign government."

Mexican authorities stop a migrant caravan that had earlier crossed the Mexico - Guatemala border, near Metapa, Chiapas state, Mexico, Wednesday, June 5, 2019. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

Meanwhile, some 200 Mexican military police, immigration agents and federal police blocked the advance of about 1,000 Central American migrants who were walking north along a southern Mexico highway on Wednesday, once again showing a tougher new stance on attempts to use the country as a stepping-stone to the U.S.
The group of migrants, including many women and children, set out early from Ciudad Hidalgo at the Mexico-Guatemala border and was headed for Tapachula, the principal city in the region. State and local police accompanied the caravan.
The officials blocked the highway near the community of Metapa, about 11 miles from Tapachula.
Unarmed agents wrestled some migrants who resisted to the ground, but the vast majority complied and boarded buses or immigration agency vans. Some migrants fainted and fell to the ground. One young man who collapsed was taken for medical attention.
That afternoon, in Mexico City, police detained Irineo Mujica, the head of migrant aide group Pueblo Sin Fronteras, and Cristobal Sanchez, a migrant activist.
Vice President Mike Pence, monitoring the talks from his travels in Pennsylvania, said the U.S. was "encouraged" by Mexico's latest proposals but, so far, tariffs still were set to take effect Monday.
Trump, in announcing the tariffs last week, promised that they would swiftly increase if no action was taken. The president declared Wednesday evening that "not nearly enough" progress was being made in last-minute negotiations with Mexico.
"On June 10th, the United States will impose a 5% Tariff on all goods coming into our Country from Mexico, until such time as illegal migrants coming through Mexico, and into our Country, STOP," Trump said on May 30. "The Tariff will gradually increase until the Illegal Immigration problem is remedied, ... ..at which time the Tariffs will be removed. Details from the White House to follow."
Fox News is told the tariff on all goods by land, sea, and air from Mexico will hike to 10 percent on July 1 -- and potentially increase substantially from there.
"If Mexico still has not taken action to dramatically reduce or eliminate the number of illegal aliens crossing its territory into the United States, Tariffs will be increased to 15 percent on August 1, 2019, to 20 percent on September 1, 2019, and to 25 percent on October 1, 2019," Trump said in a statement released later by the White House on Thursday. "Tariffs will permanently remain at the 25 percent level unless and until Mexico substantially stops the illegal inflow of aliens coming through its territory."
The statement added: "Thousands of innocent lives are taken every year as a result of this lawless chaos.  It must end NOW! ... Mexico’s passive cooperation in allowing this mass incursion constitutes an emergency and extraordinary threat to the national security and economy of the United States."
Specifically, White House sources told Fox News that Mexico would need to step up security efforts on the border, target transnational smugglers, crack down on illicit bus lines and align with the U.S. on a workable asylum policy. Mexico could use certain so-called choke points on the southern border to curb illegal migration sharply, according to the sources.
Arrests along the southern border have skyrocketed in recent months, with border agents making more than 100,000 arrests or denials of entry in March, a 12-year high. Immigration courts that process asylum claims currently have faced a backlog of more than 800,000 cases and asylum applicants increasingly have been staying in the U.S. even after their claims for asylum have been denied.
More than 4,000 individuals have been apprehended at the border with children who are not their own in recent months, administration officials tell Fox News.

FILE - This May 29, 2019 file photo released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) shows some of 1,036 migrants who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas, the largest that the Border Patrol says it has ever encountered. (U.S. Customs and Border Protection via AP, File)

And, Customs and Border Protection said it apprehended or turned away over 109,000 migrants attempting to cross the border in April, the second month in a row the number has topped 100,000.
In a dramatic moment, more than 1,000 illegal immigrants were apprehended by border agents near the U.S.-Mexico border last week -- the largest ever group of migrants ever apprehended at a single time, sources told Fox News. The group of 1,036 illegal immigrants found in the El Paso sector included migrants from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, according to sources.
The Trump administration has heavily focused on asylum law reforms, making the current reported Mexican overtures in that area particularly important. Asylum law, conservatives point out, is intended to shield individuals from near-certain death or persecution on account of limited factors like religious or political affiliation — not poor living conditions and economic despair.
Last year, the Justice Department eliminated gang violence and domestic abuse as a possible justification for seeking asylum.
Most asylum applicants are ultimately rejected for having an insufficient or unfounded personalized fear of persecution, following a full hearing of their case before an asylum officer or an immigration judge.
Fox News' John Roberts and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Trump launches blistering attack on 'nasty, vindictive, horrible' Pelosi

President Trump has taken the gloves off in his ongoing feud with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Speaking exclusively to Fox News’ Laura Ingraham in Normandy, France, in an interview that aired Thursday, the president first took time to pay tribute to the heroes who fought on D-Day 75 years ago, describing them as “incredibly brave people” who displayed incredible “valor.”
Then, the president switched gears, slamming Pelosi, D-Calif., as a “nasty, vindictive, horrible person” -- after saying he had “tried to be nice to her.”
“I think she’s a disgrace. I actually don’t think she’s a talented person, I’ve tried to be nice to her because I would have liked to have gotten some deals done,” Trump said on “The Ingraham Angle.”
“She’s incapable of doing deals, she’s a nasty, vindictive, horrible person, the Mueller report came out, it was a disaster for them.”
Trump then referenced former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report, suggesting some Democrats hoped it would give them the so-called silver bullet to take him down.

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“They thought their good friend Bobby Mueller was going to give them a great report and he came out with a report with 13 horrible, angry Democrats who are totally biased against me,” the president told Ingraham.
“A couple of them worked for Hillary Clinton, they then added five more, also Democrats. With all of that, two-and-a-half years, think of it, from before I even got elected, they’ve been going after me and they have nothing.”
Ingraham then asked Trump if he cared whether or not Mueller would testify publicly about his report. The president used the question as another chance to unload on Pelosi.
“Let me tell you, he made such a fool out of himself the last time she -- because what people don’t report is the letter he had to do to straighten out his testimony because his testimony was wrong but Nancy Pelosi, I call her nervous Nancy, Nancy Pelosi doesn’t talk about it,” Trump told Fox News.
“Nancy Pelosi’s a disaster, OK, she’s a disaster and let her do what she wants, you know what? I think they’re in big trouble because when you look at the kind of crimes that were committed, and I don’t need any more evidence, and I guess from what I’m hearing there’s a lot of evidence coming in.
“And then ask Nancy, why is her district [having] drug needles all over the place? It’s the most disgusting thing what she’s allowed to happen to her district, with needles, with drug addicts... with people living on the sidewalk.”
Trump continued, referencing Pelosi’s reported comment to fellow top Democrats that she would like to see him in “prison.”
“It was a horrible, nasty, vicious statement while I’m overseas... She didn’t want to – she is a terrible person and I’ll tell you her name, it’s nervous Nancy because she’s a nervous wreck.”
Pelosi, as Politico reported, made the remark while defending her stance against impeaching the president in an evening meeting with House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., and other top Democrats.
“I don’t want to see him impeached, I want to see him in prison,” she said, according to multiple Democratic sources familiar with the meeting. House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md., Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., and Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., also reportedly attended the meeting.
Trump also discussed his potential 2020 opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, during his interview with Ingraham.
After being asked about Biden downplaying the potential threat of China to the U.S. at a recent town-hall event, Trump said: “He just doesn't get it, he just doesn't get it.”
“How happy would President Xi be to have Joe Biden be the nominee of the Democratic party,” Ingraham followed up, to which the president replied: “Well he wants him, he wants him.”
Elsewhere during the president’s wide-ranging interview with Ingraham, he said Mueller made “such a fool” out of himself last week when he delivered his first and only public statement about the Russia investigation.
“Let me tell you, he made such a fool out of himself ... because what people don’t report is the letter he had to do to straighten out his testimony because his testimony was wrong,” Trump told Ingraham.
Trump was referring to Mueller’s initial suggestion that the president was not charged with an obstruction-of-justice offense because of longstanding Justice Department policy.
“Charging the president with a crime was not an option we could consider,” Mueller said last week, citing an Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) opinion stating that a sitting president could not be indicted.
“If we had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said that. ... We concluded that we would not reach a determination one way or the other about whether the president committed a crime,” Mueller said.
Fox News' Brooke Singman contributed to this report.