Rep. Ilhan Omar’s former husband described himself as gay in an academic paper, drawing renewed attention to their marriage history.
Ahmed Nur Said Elmi’s disclosure comes as federal investigators reportedly examine whether his 2009 marriage to the Democrat was fraudulent.
Elmi, 41, is a doctoral researcher at the University of Bristol whose work examines violence against gay people in Africa.
“As a gay man of the East African diaspora, my fieldwork was never neutral,” Elmi wrote in the August paper.
The paper is titled “Out in the Field: Notes on Researching Queer Violence in Kenya” and draws on interviews there.
Elmi described that research as “not just an academic undertaking,” connecting the subject to his personal identity and experiences.
He authored a September study with The Schumacher Institute, summarizing interviews at four Kenyan sites about homosexuality and public hostility.
The interviews underpin both research projects.
His LinkedIn profile says his doctoral research receives British government funding through the Economic and Social Research Council, NewsNation reported.
The disclosure adds Elmi’s own words to coverage dominated by allegations about the marriage and questions surrounding Omar’s immigration history.
President Donald Trump has accused Elmi of being Omar’s brother, a claim the congresswoman denies and has described as insane.
The New York Times reported that no public evidence establishes Elmi as Omar’s sibling, a distinction from investigating marriage fraud.
Elmi’s sexual orientation does not establish a biological relationship with Omar or prove that their marriage violated immigration law.
Those allegations concern separate questions, and an investigation into a marriage does not itself establish that the spouses are siblings.
During an MS NOW interview Chris Hayes asked whether there was a strange element of truth behind the claim.
“Not to my knowledge,” Omar replied, after having rejected the accusation earlier in the interview, according to the supplied account.
Department of Homeland Security agents searched her Washington home October 12 as part of the ongoing federal investigation, NewsNation reported.
The investigation reportedly began in the department’s war crimes unit and involves immigration fraud allegations, including questions about citizenship.
Its reported origins do not, themselves establish that Omar is accused of committing war crimes or that investigators proved fraud.
The Times reported Thursday that investigators were also examining evidence concerning a possible sham marriage between Omar and Elmi.
Citing current and former officials, the newspaper described an earlier FBI and Homeland Security investigation into the marriage during 2016.
Investigators reportedly found some evidence suggesting fraud, but prosecutors concluded that any potential offense fell outside a five-year limitations period.
That account describes a case halted by a deadline, rather than a conviction or judicial finding establishing the marriage’s purpose.
The report distinguishes that criminal deadline from civil denaturalization, which involves a separate process and has no comparable limitations period.
Whether either pathway could apply would depend on the relevant evidence and legal requirements, rather than the academic disclosure alone.
According to the New York Post, a Christian minister married Omar and Elmi February 12, 2009, despite Omar being Muslim.
At that time, Omar already had two children with Ahmed Hirsi, with whom she held a religious ceremony in 2002.
That ceremony was not a legal marriage, according to the report, and Omar had another child with Hirsi in 2012.
Omar and Elmi finalized their divorce in 2017, leaving investigators reportedly reviewing events that began well before her congressional service.
NewsNation said it contacted Omar’s congressional office for comment, while her broader public position remains that she committed no wrongdoing.
The controversy has also produced disagreement among Democrats, as previously supplied reporting described criticism from Minneapolis political operative Joe Radinovich.
Radinovich, a former Democratic state lawmaker and adviser to Mayor Jacob Frey, publicly expressed confidence in the disputed brother allegation, NewsNation reported.
He previously managed Don Samuels’s unsuccessful Democratic primary challenges against Omar, providing context for his criticism of the congresswoman.
This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.
