Ilhan Omar's campaign cash to consultants dipped by millions after halting payments to husband's firm

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Rep. Ilhan Omar says no lawmakers are trying to prevent parents from being involved in education

Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar says no one in Congress or local government are trying to prevent parents from being involved in education

Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar's campaign cash to consultants fell by millions of dollars after she removed her husband's firm from her payroll, a Fox News Digital review of federal filings has found.

The Minnesota lawmaker dished out millions of dollars from her campaign's coffers to the E Street Group, a political consulting firm co-owned by her husband, Tim Mynett, during the 2020 election cycle. Mynett's group had raked in half of Omar's total expenditures, making it the committee's largest vendor during that election.

But after facing increased scrutiny over the payments, Omar abruptly changed course from her once defiant state and cut off the cash flow to the E Street group shortly before the switch into the 2022 cycle. Now, her campaign pays far less for the same services to various other firms, calling into question the high nature of the E Street Group's past charges.

Following her husband's firm's removal, Omar's expenses towards similar services fell by around $2 million, according to a review of Federal Election Commission filings. 

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Rep. Omar's campaign previously paid her husband nearly $3 million for services during the 2020 election cycle. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Omar's committee previously paid the E Street Group nearly $3 million for its work, including advertisements across multiple platforms, direct mail, video production and editing, fundraising consulting, and research, among other services.

But during the 2022 election cycle, Omar's campaign only doled out around $1 million to a handful of Washington, D.C., Minnesota, and California-based firms for those same services, a search of her filings shows. 

One of the groups that picked up the fundraising slack, Barnett Strategies LLC, is owned by Rachel Barnett, a former director at the E Street Group.

Business records show that Barnett registered the company two months after Omar's final check went to her husband's firm. However, Barnett Strategies has received far less cash ($100,000) than the E Street Group for its previous share of the campaign's fundraising endeavors ($300,000). Omar's husband does not appear to have any link to the group outside his former employee owning the company.

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When Omar cut off the cash spigot to her husband's firm, the campaign poured far less into similar services with other companies. 

And after Omar axed her husband's firm from her campaign's payroll, its total percentages toward the same services also drastically plummeted. In 2020, the E Street Group pulled in around 50 percent of the campaign's $5.7 million in distributions; in 2022, the other companies performing those same services took in around 30 percent of the campaign's $3.2 million in total expenditures, the filings show.

The payments, meanwhile, had also plunged when Omar faced her most formidable Democratic opponent since running for Congress. The outspoken 'Squad' member narrowly won the 2022 Democratic primary by just 2,436 votes over challenger Don Samuels. 

Just two years prior - when the E Street Group was raking in cash - Omar faced no real threat and easily won the Democratic primary, defeating her nearest opponent by 35,011 votes.

Omar faced heavy scrutiny over her past payments to her husband's firm. (Photo by Olivier Douliery/ABACAPRESS.COM)

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Omar has easily cruised to victory in Minnesota's heavily Democratic 5th congressional district during her general elections, garnering at least 143,000 more votes than her opponents since 2018.

Omar's campaign did not respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment on the sharp decline in its consulting payments after she had cut ties to her husband's group.