The Biden administrations Justice Department quietly opened a probe into Rep. Ilhan Omars finances and her interactions with a foreign citizen in 2024, the same year the Minnesota Democrats reported net worth exploded from almost nothing to tens of millions of dollars.
According to the Washington Free Beacon, the investigationfirst disclosed by the New York Timeswas initiated in June 2024 by the U.S. attorneys office in Washington, D.C., but has reportedly stalled for lack of evidence. The identity of the foreign national at the center of the inquiry remains unknown, underscoring how little transparency has accompanied Omars sudden rise in wealth and influence.
The timing of the probe coincides with a stunning financial transformation. As reported by the New York Times, Omars net worth surged from no more than $51,000 at the end of 2023 to as much as $30 million by the close of 2024, a leap that would be extraordinary for any public official, let alone a self-styled progressive critic of capitalism.
That increaseat least 3,500 percentappears to stem almost entirely from her husband Tim Mynetts ownership stakes in two private companies, including his investment firm Rose Lake Capital. The firm touts relationships with investment bankers, private equity and venture capital companies, corporate operators and consultants across the globe, raising obvious questions about potential conflicts of interest for a sitting member of Congress involved in foreign policy.
Republicans on Capitol Hill have already signaled they are not prepared to let the matter drop. House Oversight Committee chairman Rep. James Comer (R., Ky.) said in January that his office is weighing whether to subpoena Mynett over his business dealings, a move that would escalate congressional scrutiny of the couples finances.
Outside Washington, the controversy has drawn the attention of President Donald Trump, who has long criticized Omars radical politics and anti-Israel rhetoric. Trump wrote on Truth Social that the Justice Department is looking at Omar, who left Somalia with NOTHING, and is now reportedly worth more than 44 Million Dollars, a pointed reminder of how far she has come financially since arriving in the United States.
The reported federal inquiry into Omars interactions with a foreign citizen intersects with her growing involvement in Africa-related policy and investment circles. Shortly after Mynett launched Rose Lake Capital in 2022 with his business partner, Democratic operative Will Hailer, Omar created the U.S.-Africa Policy Working Group, a caucus she leads that includes 20 members of Congress committed to building partnership with the continent of Africa.
Since the formation of that working group, Omar and Mynett have appeared together at events hosted by the EBII Group, a firm that specializes in facilitating international investment flows into African markets. At EBIIs African Leaders and Partners forum in 2023, Omar served as keynote speaker and urged Congress to approve a $44 billion lifeline for African communities, while Hailer, as Rose Lakes CEO, moderated a panel on the difficulties foreign investors face in extracting capital from African countries.
In a sworn declaration filed in November 2024, Hailer described Rose Lake as a global advisory player deeply embedded in international finance. He stated that Rose Lake provides consulting services to global operators in the business space and has built relationships with investment bankers, private equity and venture capital companies, corporate operators and consultants across the globe, language that underscores the firms worldwide reach.
Rose Lake is not Mynett and Hailers first foray into private investment. Their earlier venture, eSt Ventures, became embroiled in litigation after two South Dakota cannabis companies accused the pair of diverting $1.7 million of a $3.5 million investment for purposes unrelated to the stated business plan, a serious allegation for men now tied to the financial fortunes of a sitting member of Congress.
When the aggrieved investors demanded their money back, Hailer claimed that the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) had frozen the funds, as previously reported by the Free Beacon. OFAC, a Treasury Department unit, administers sanctions on hostile foreign regimes and entities involved in the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, making its purported involvement in a domestic cannabis investment highly unusual on its face.
Despite its lofty claims, Rose Lake itself appears to operate in a regulatory gray zone. The firms website boasts that its management team has collectively overseen $60 billion in assets under management, yet the company is not registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as the New York Post has reported, and some of its previously listed advisers are now distancing themselves from the operation.
Among those advisers is former Democratic senator Max Baucus of Montana, who once chaired the Senate Finance Committee and later served as President Barack Obamas ambassador to China. Baucus told the Post he had a single phone conversation with Hailer in 2022 about a storage unit deal and never consented to having his name featured on Rose Lakes website.
You can read between the lines, Baucus saidit sounded a little bit fishy. His remarks highlight the unease even among Democrats about being associated with a firm now linked to a controversial progressive lawmaker under federal scrutiny.
Mynetts move into venture capital followed years of lucrative work as a political consultant for Omars campaign. During that period, both Omar and Mynett divorced their previous spouses and married each other in 2020, while Omars campaign steered $2.9 million into Mynetts consulting firm, E Street Group, a flow of funds that drew intense criticism from ethics watchdogs and conservatives who saw it as self-dealing.
Despite her own financial disclosure showing assets worth upward of $30 million, Omar continues to insist she is not a multimillionaire. She has also tried to wave away the Justice Departments interest in her finances, portraying it as a partisan distraction rather than a legitimate inquiry into potential corruption or foreign entanglements.
Sorry, Trump, your support is collapsing and youre panicking, Omar wrote in a post on X, directly attacking the President rather than addressing the substance of the allegations. Right on cue, youre deflecting from your failures with lies and conspiracy theories about me. Years of investigations have found nothing.
For conservatives concerned about integrity in public office, the unresolved questions surrounding Omars wealth, her husbands opaque investment ventures, and her policy advocacy on Africa are not easily dismissed as mere conspiracy theories.
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