WASHINGTON (AP) — The chairman of the House Oversight Committee on Friday took the unusual step of scrutinizing the spouse of a sitting House member by requesting records related to a company partially owned by the husband of Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar.
Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., released a letter to former Democratic political consultant Timothy Mynett, who is married to Omar, requesting records related to two companies that saw significant increases in value between 2023 and 2024.
Cuomo’s request marks a highly unusual move by the chairman of a committee that has historically been subject to politically charged investigations but has almost always focused on government officials outside of Congress. The House Ethics Committee is made up of equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans and has tried to stay out of the political fray, often handling allegations involving lawmakers and their families.
Yet Omar has been under near-constant attack from the right since she was elected as one of the first Muslim women to the House of Representatives in 2018. She dismissed the allegations about her finances as “misleading” and based on conspiracy theories.
Omar’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Cuomo also expressed a willingness to push the traditional parameters of the oversight panel. In a separate investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, he is enforcing subpoenas for testimony from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton, marking the first time a former president has been forced to appear before Congress.
“The public has serious concerns about how your business has grown in value significantly after only one year with very limited reported assets,” Cuomo said in a letter to Meinette on Friday.
There is no evidence of wrongdoing by Omar, but President Donald Trump also said last month that the Justice Department was investigating her finances.
In response to the president, Omar said on social media, “Your support is collapsing and you are panicking,” adding, “Years of ‘investigations’ have yielded nothing.”
The review of Omar’s finances comes from a required financial disclosure statement she filed last May. She reported at the time that two companies linked to her husband, a brewery called eStCru and an investment firm called Rose Lake Capital, had increased in value by at least $5.9 million. Lawmakers report assets in dollar figures, so it’s unclear exactly how much the companies’ value has risen or how much stake Meinette owns in them.
Omar also noted that her husband’s income from the winery ranged from $5,000 to $15,000 and that there was no income from Rose Lake Capital.
