00:00Representative Ilhan Omar has continued to deny allegations she fraudulently married her alleged brother, Ahmed Elmi,
00:06but when asked if they were elated this week, she cautiously replied,
00:10Not to my knowledge.
00:11The Minnesota congresswoman, who arrived in the U.S. as a refugee from Somalia in 1995,
00:17has vehemently denounced the notion that she married Elmi for immigration purposes.
00:21But significant evidence has emerged, which continues to fuel speculation that is not the case.
00:27Number one, the marriage certificate.
00:28Omar legally married Elmi, who she described as a British citizen in the U.S. in 2009, and they divorced
00:35in 2017.
00:36Omar's family background is split across continents and complicated by Somalian paperwork being lost or destroyed.
00:43Her mother is said to have died when she was young, and her family is said to be split with
00:47one branch in the U.K. and one in the U.S.
00:50Elmi's parentage is not known, but he lived in London with Leila Noor Said, a Somalian woman who is thought
00:56to be Omar's sister,
00:57and possibly raised him.
00:59A U.K. marriage certificate for Leila from 1997 obtained by the Post lists her father as Noor Said Elmi,
01:06a military officer from Somalia.
01:08Omar's late father, Noor Omar Muhammad, also went by the name Noor Said Elmi,
01:13and was a prominent military commander in the Somali dictatorship.
01:17Multiple sources have told the Post they believe the person listed on the British legal document is Noor, Omar's father.
01:24Omar's father also went by Noor Said on Facebook, and his profile is linked to Leila's, who proudly left hearts
01:30on his pictures.
01:31Following his death at age 67 in June 2020, well-wishers took to social media to pay tribute to Noor
01:38Said Elmi and left messages of condolences for both Omar and Leila.
01:42Leila and Omar did not respond for comment when reached out to by email.
01:46Number two, the living arrangements.
01:49From 2009 to 2017, Omar was legally married to Elmi, but during that time, Omar had her third child with
01:56previous husband, Ahmed Hirsi.
01:59Omar first applied for a marriage license with Hirsi in 2002, though she later said they never finalized the application
02:05and thus were never legally married.
02:08According to Omar, the pair separated in 2008, but then reconciled about four years later, around 2012, and married in
02:162018.
02:17Omar claims that she and Elmi split in 2011, but that it took a few years to finish the paperwork.
02:23On Omar and Elmi's marriage application, both listed their marital addresses as a property in Columbia Heights, a suburb in
02:31Minneapolis.
02:32Hirsi also used that address for a business license.
02:34On top of that, the Post has previously reported joint tax filings between Omar and Hirsi in 2014 and 2015
02:41while she was legally married to Elmi, although those filings were later corrected.
02:46Omar's divorce with Elmi was finalized in 2017, though he reportedly left the country to return to the UK well
02:53before it was completed.
02:54In 2019, he withdrew a marriage-based green card application he had filed.
02:59It was reported the withdrawal came after the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services requested more evidence about the marriage.
03:06Number three, community leaders claim.
03:09A Minneapolis-based Somali blogger added fuel to the fire when he told the Daily Mail in 2020 he knew
03:14Omar when the two were growing up in Minnesota,
03:16and she had introduced Elmi as her brother from London to Somali community members in the early 2000s.
03:22Omar allegedly would tell people at the time her sibling was looking for papers, referencing immigration documents such as a
03:29green card.
03:30No one knew there had been a wedding to Elmi until the media turned up the marriage certificate years later,
03:35he said at the time.
03:36The Somali blogger claimed Elmi was ordered to come to the U.S. from the UK by his father,
03:41who disapproved of the flamboyant lifestyle he'd been living in London.
03:45People began noticing that Ilhan and Hersey were often with a very effeminate young guy.
03:49He was very feminine in the way he dressed.
03:52He would wear light lipstick and pink clothes and very, very short shorts in the summer.
03:57People started whispering about him, he claimed to the Daily Mail.
04:00The ousting to America was meant as a sort of rehab, according to the blogger.
04:05Following his UK return, Elmi pursued a doctorate degree at Bristol University from 2023,
04:10where his areas of interest included Critically Queer and Gender Research Group.
04:15As of late 2025, the Post reported how he made an extended visit to the University of Wood Waterstrand in
04:21South Africa.
04:22So far, so fab.
04:23A month in Joburg, Elmi captioned an Instagram post dated November 4th.
04:28Except for Omar, Elmi has never been romantically linked to another woman.
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