The New York Post has published additional reporting (assembled from previous reporting – see below) on the disputed allegations surrounding Omar’s marriage to Ahmed Elmi, highlighting a British marriage certificate alongside previously reported financial records and witness claims.
Omar denies wrongdoing, and the material presented does not establish that Elmi is her brother or that their marriage was fraudulent. The Post’s cited evidence and allegations include:
- Family records and names: A 1997 British marriage certificate obtained by the Post identifies the father of Leila Nur Said, whom the paper describes as believed to be Omar’s sister, as Nur Said Elmi. Sources told the paper this was another name used by Omar’s father. The Post also cites the federal filing identifying Omar as “Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, a/k/a Ilhan Abdullahi Omar.” His profession is listed as “military officer.”
- A shared address: Omar and Elmi listed the same Columbia Heights, Minnesota, address on their 2009 marriage application. Ahmed Hirsi, the father of Omar’s children, also used that address for a business license, according to the Post.
- Overlapping relationships and tax filings: Omar had her third child with Hirsi in 2012 while legally married to Elmi. The Post also cites joint tax returns Omar filed with Hirsi for 2014 and 2015, before her divorce from Elmi was finalized in 2017. Those returns were subsequently corrected.
- A withdrawn immigration application: Citing the Washington Post, the paper reports that Elmi withdrew a marriage-based green-card application in 2019 after immigration authorities requested additional evidence concerning the marriage.
- A disputed witness account: The Post revisits a Somali blogger’s 2020 claim to the Daily Mail that Omar had introduced Elmi as her brother and said he needed immigration “papers.” This remains a witness allegation, rather than documentary proof of kinship or fraud.
Omar’s late father, Nur Omar Mohamed, served as a colonel in Somalia’s army under dictator Siad Barre. A 2020 Sahan Journal obituary, citing a fellow former officer, reported that he commanded a regiment during the 1977–78 Somali–Ethiopian War and remained in the military until the regime collapsed in 1991. The New York Post has since quoted historian Mohamed Haji Ingiriis accusing him of helping sustain Barre’s dictatorship and misrepresenting his background when seeking refugee status in the United States. Barre’s forces committed well-documented atrocities against Isaaq civilians, including bombardments of Hargeisa and attacks on fleeing civilians. However, those atrocities and Nur’s military rank do not establish his individual culpability: the reporting cited does not demonstrate that he personally ordered or participated in a specific atrocity.
