After reviewing the evidence gathered, some of which I personally obtained, I am convinced that Ilhan Omar married her biological brother. That is, I believe that the brother-marriage story to be more likely true than false.
In an effort to preserve the record, almost two years ago, I assembled a PDF document that linked to all of the extant, relevant media accounts of the marriage controversy and the Ilhan Omar backstory.
So what? To paraphrase a former First Lady, at this point, what difference does it make?
Lots of people make mistakes in their relative youth but marrying your sibling to advance some low-level grift displays such a catastrophic lack of judgement, it becomes disqualifying to one’s holding public office thereafter.
With the brother-marriage controversy back in the news, Snopes.com saw fit to repost their 2019 fact check on the topic last week. They have not moved from their original verdict as “unfounded.” Snopes credits (or blames) Scott Johnson and Power Line for bringing the accusation to a national audience back in August 2016. The 2025 headline from Snopes reads,
Did Ilhan Omar marry her brother? Rumor lacks evidence
Supporters of the now-Congresswoman from Minneapolis assert that the brother-marriage accusation has been “debunked” by fact checks, perhaps dozens of times.
I’ve only been able to track down three serious, independent efforts: Snopes, PolitiFact (verdict: “no smoking gun”), and the Minneapolis Star Tribune (which reaches no conclusion).
“Unproven” and “debunked” are qualitatively two different concepts. Debunked holds the colloquial meaning of to prove something false. A more literal meaning of debunk is to remove “bunk” (nonsense or falsehoods) from the accusation. To do so would require taking on individual items presented as evidence, and showing that they were fabricated, doctored, misinterpreted, or otherwise are not supportive of the claim made.
In the case of the brother marriage, the good-faith fact checks performed have not refuted any of the evidence presented, rather they reach the summary conclusion that the weight or volume of the supporting evidence doesn’t yet shift the verdict from “unproven” to “proven.”
That Omar married in 2009 (and divorced in 2017) a man named Ahmed Nur Said Elmi is undisputed and confirmed in Hennepin County (MN) court documents.
What is in dispute is the prior relationship (if any) between Omar and Elmi before they became legally husband and wife. Is Elmi her brother, half-brother, stepbrother, cousin, or do they not share any blood or nonmarital familial relationship?
Within the pile of “circumstantial” evidence assembled, the closest thing to a smoking gun are the instances where Omar herself and others referred to Omar’s late father as Nur Said, rather than the expected Nur Omar. Ahmed’s admitted name exactly matches Ilhan’s father’s name (Said), following Somali cultural naming traditions.
Another smoking gun was to be found in an early version of an Omar profile published in the now-defunct City Pages. The October 2016 profile named a Nur Said Elmi Mohamed as Omar’s father, before that name was quickly “corrected” later by City Pages.
But other incriminating evidence, social media posts and the like, exist as screenshots from now-deleted posts from now deleted accounts.
So, we are left with the questions of “what is evidence” and “what is proof?” I suspect anything short of a written, signed, notarized and authenticated confession from both the bride and groom would be deemed “lacking.”
Equally displaced is the debate over motive. A close reading of the record suggests the marriage was undertaken to either (1) improve Elmi’s immigration standing or (2) to lower the cost of their mutual attendance at North Dakota State University, or both.
But given Omar’s lifelong history of poor decision making, attributing an intelligent and fully-thought-out rationalization for the marriage seems beside the point. At the time (2009), Omar was a private citizen with a political career still many years beyond the horizon. For brother deniers, the focus on motive is akin to the more extreme examples where the media downplay the carnage of terrorist attacks because the underlying motive remains “unclear.”
The deed was done, who cares “why?”
Absent DNA testing on the principals, or the emergence of new evidence acceptable to her supporters, we are left with a matter of belief. Either you believe the cumulative clues that point to Omar’s marriage to a close relative, or you stick to the belief that she would never commit such an unnatural act.
As the man said, you gotta have faith.
