House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer is pushing to take the investigation into Rep. Ilhan Omar's husband international. Comer has requested that the House Ethics Committee expand its probe into Tim Mynett's business activities to cover dealings connected to Somalia, Kenya, and the United Arab Emirates — a significant escalation that signals investigators believe the trail doesn't end at U.S. borders.
The move comes as questions mount over Omar's personal finances. The Minnesota Democrat's net worth reportedly surged from $51,000 to $30 million in a single year — a spike linked to two of Mynett's businesses, Rose Lake Capital LLC and a failed California winery called eStCru LLC.
From $51,000 to $30 million. In twelve months. On a congressional salary.
In a letter dated Feb. 5, Comer's committee demanded Mynett turn over a specific and sweeping set of records:
"All documents and communications" by anyone affiliated with either Rose Lake Capital LLC or his failed California winery eStCru LLC related to travel "to the United Arab Emirates, Somalia or Kenya, or travel undertaken to solicit business connected to those countries. This includes the dates of travel, the individuals who traveled, and the stated purpose of each trip."
According to Breitbart, Mynett faces a Thursday deadline to comply. The committee initially spearheaded the probe, and Comer vowed back in January to get answers about Omar's "skyrocketing" wealth. The international expansion suggests he's found enough threads to pull.
One detail already in the record: Mynett's main business partner received a $10,699 air ticket to Dubai after talks about a deal there. Rose Lake Capital, meanwhile, reportedly wanted to build solar panels in Africa. The overlap between Mynett's business geography and Omar's congressional portfolio — she sits on the Foreign Affairs Committee and represents a district with deep ties to the Somali diaspora — is the kind of coincidence investigators tend to find interesting.
Members of Congress aren't poor, but they aren't usually minting thirty-million-dollar fortunes in a single calendar year either. The leap from $51,000 to $30 million isn't a story about a good investment or a book deal. It's an anomaly that demands a specific, documented explanation — the kind that comes with receipts, not talking points.
Omar has said that people are falsely claiming she is worth millions and has pointed the finger at conservatives, whom she says are unfairly targeting her. No direct, detailed rebuttal addressing the financial disclosures or Mynett's business activities has been reported from her camp.
That's the pattern with Omar: deflect to motive, never address substance. When the question is "how did your net worth multiply by nearly 600 times in one year," the answer can't be "conservatives are mean." It has to be numbers on paper, and those numbers are exactly what Comer is demanding.
President Trump has not been subtle about where he stands. In a social media post, he tied Omar directly to broader fraud allegations in Minnesota:
"There is 19 Billion Dollars in Minnesota Somalia Fraud. Fake 'Congresswoman' Illhan Omar, a constant complainer who hates the USA, knows everything there is to know. She should be in jail, or even a worse punishment, sent back to Somalia, considered one of the absolutely worst countries in the World. She could help to MAKE SOMALIA GREAT AGAIN!"
In another post, he broadened the target:
"'Scammer' Illhan Omar and her absolutely terrible friends from Somalia should all be in jail right now or, far worse, send them back to Somalia. 'Governor' Waltz is either the most CORRUPT government official in history, or the most INCOMPETENT. Even a very low IQ person, of which there are many, should have known what was going on in Minnesota!!! President DJT."
Omar recently took a jab at Trump in return, though the specifics of that exchange matter less than the underlying question: can she account for the money?
Comer told Omar bluntly that she "needs to keep her mouth shut." It's not diplomatic, but it captures the frustration of investigators watching a subject of a financial probe spend more time attacking the investigation than answering its questions.
This is a member of Congress whose husband's business ventures span from a failed winery in California to solar panel ambitions in Africa to a business partner flying business class to Dubai. The financial architecture around Omar and Mynett has the complexity of a private equity fund and the transparency of a locked filing cabinet. Comer's demand for travel records, deal communications, and trip manifests is designed to pry that cabinet open.
The Ethics Committee investigation now has an international dimension. Mynett's deadline is Thursday. Either the documents arrive, or the silence becomes its own kind of answer.
Washington has no shortage of members who came from the middle class and left wealthy. But the scale and speed of Omar's financial transformation put it in a category of its own — one that three foreign countries, two LLCs, and a $10,699 plane ticket to Dubai are now part of explaining.