Ilhan Omar files for divorce
Rep. Ilhan Omar is splitting from her husband.
The Minnesota Democrat filed for divorce from Ahmed Hirsi on Friday, her attorney confirmed to ITK.
“As with all marriages, this is intensely personal and a difficult time for their family,” attorney Jaime Driggs said in a statement.
{mosads}The couple has a seemingly complicated past, and their marriage had been in the spotlight long before TMZ first reported the divorce news on Monday.
Omar and Hirsi became engaged in 2002 but never legally married. The pair had two children together before separating in 2008.
Omar married Ahmed Nur Said Elmi in 2009 and later said the two obtained a divorce in their Muslim faith tradition — albeit not a legal one — in 2011.
Omar and Hirsi reconciled after that and had a third child together in 2012. The lawmaker officially filed to divorce Elmi in 2017, and legally married Hirsi in 2018.
Earlier this year, a Minnesota campaign finance board’s investigation found that the 38-year-old freshman congresswoman and Hirsi filed joint tax returns in 2014 and 2015, while she was still legally married to Elmi.
“For years, Ilhan and Ahmed have been the object of speculation and innuendo from political opponents and the media,” Driggs said on Monday. “This has taken a significant toll on Ilhan, Ahmed, and their three children.”
“Just like any other family navigating this kind of transition,” Driggs said, “Ilhan wishes to have their privacy respected for themselves and their children and will not be commenting any further.”
Omar, one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress and a member of the so-called “Squad,” is a frequent subject of criticism from President Trump, who plans to hold a rally in her district on Thursday as part of his bid to flip Minnesota from blue to red in 2020.
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