By Trendsetter Tribune 
On Friday, the head of the House Oversight Committee asked for documents about businesses partly owned by the husband of Minnesota Democrat Ilhan Omar, marking a rare move to scrutinize the spouse of a sitting member of Congress.
Rep. James Comer, a Republican from Kentucky, sent a letter to Timothy Mynett, a former Democratic political consultant and Omar’s husband, requesting information about two companies that sharply increased in value between 2023 and 2024, according to Omar’s financial disclosure forms.
The Oversight Committee has usually focused on executive branch officials, while allegations involving lawmakers and their families are more often handled by the bipartisan House Ethics Committee, making Comer’s step highly unusual.
Since her 2018 election as one of the first Muslim women in Congress, Omar has been a frequent target for conservative critics and has rejected questions about her finances as misleading and rooted in conspiracy theories.
Omar’s office has characterized Comer’s effort as a political attack rather than genuine oversight, with a spokesperson calling the letter a stunt aimed at fundraising and smearing the congresswoman.
Comer has signaled a broader willingness to stretch the committee’s traditional boundaries, including in a separate inquiry into Jeffrey Epstein in which he is compelling testimony from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton, an unprecedented step for a former president.
In his letter to Mynett, Comer said there are serious questions about how the businesses’ value rose so dramatically in a single year after previously reporting limited assets.
There is currently no evidence that Omar has broken any laws, though President Donald Trump recently claimed the Justice Department is examining her finances. Omar has responded that repeated investigations over the years have failed to uncover wrongdoing.
The scrutiny stems from a financial disclosure Omar filed last May, which reported that two firms connected to Mynett—a winery, eStCru, and an investment firm, Rose Lake Capital—had together increased in value by at least 5.9 million dollars, though exact figures and Mynett’s precise ownership stakes are not publicly known because disclosures use broad value ranges.
Omar has also noted that her husband’s reported income from the winery was between 5,000 and 15,000 dollars, and that he reported no income from Rose Lake Capital.