Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, the former husband of Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, describes himself as a gay man in an academic paper from August, according to the Daily Caller. The outlet calls it the first explicit evidence of his sexual orientation. That framing is the Daily Caller's own.
The report arrives as federal investigators are examining Omar's first marriage. Federal agents searched Omar's Washington home on Oct. 12, and investigators are reportedly looking at her 2009 marriage to Elmi. President Trump has accused Elmi of being Omar's brother. That accusation has not been proven. Asked about it, Omar gave a hedged answer, "Not to my knowledge," and has called the accusation "insane."
Nothing in the reporting so far ties the paper to the investigation. Neither the sources nor the probe say Elmi's orientation bears on the case. It is one more detail in a marriage that has drawn questions since at least 2016, when Alpha News first reported on it.
What the Paper Says
Elmi, 41, according to the Daily Caller, is a doctoral researcher at the University of Bristol in England. The outlet reported that his LinkedIn page lists funding from the Economic and Social Research Council, a British government body. He studied earlier at the Wits Centre for Diversity Studies in Johannesburg and the British Institute in Eastern Africa.
The August paper reflects on his interviews with research subjects in Kenya. In it, the Daily Caller reported, Elmi says studying violence against gay people in Africa is "not just an academic undertaking" because of "the complexities of [his] identity" as a "gay man of the East African diaspora." A second study, from September for The Schumacher Institute, covers four Kenyan sites, the criminalization of homosexuality, and hostility toward gay people.
The paper's text could not be reviewed for this report, because the file did not load. The quoted language comes from the Daily Caller's account. A New York Post story on the paper, bylined to Victor Nava in a Memeorandum listing and dated Oct. 29, also could not be read, so its contents are not described here.
Ian Kingsbury of Do No Harm, an advocacy group, criticized the scholarship. "It has all the features of woke slop," he told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The Investigation
The Daily Caller reported that the probe involves immigration fraud and began in a war crimes unit. The outlet reads that as a sign investigators are looking at Omar's naturalization through her father, whom it describes as a Somali military official. That is the Daily Caller's own inference.
The New York Times reported Thursday, citing unnamed current and former officials, that the probe is also examining evidence pointing to a sham marriage with Elmi. That account comes to us through the Daily Caller, which cites the Times; the Times article was not read for this report. The Daily Caller has separately run a headline saying Obama-era federal officials reportedly had evidence the marriage was fraudulent. Omar's office and Elmi did not respond to the Daily Caller.
The paper trail is unusual. Omar married Elmi on Feb. 12, 2009, in a ceremony performed by a Christian minister, according to the New York Post as cited by the Daily Caller. Omar is Muslim. She had two children with Ahmed Hirsi, whom she wed in a 2002 religious ceremony but never legally married. Alpha News reported that in May 2009 Hirsi listed the address on the Omar and Elmi license as his own. A third child was born in 2012. The divorce was finalized in 2017, according to Newsweek.
The Brother Question
The sibling claim rests on Trump's accusation, naming inferences and old social media posts. A heavily redacted Justice Department filing, reported by Fox 9, names her "Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, a/k/a Ilhan Abdullahi Omar." Somali naming practice uses the father's name. Elmi's name on the marriage certificate indicates his father is Nur Said, and the Justice Department name suggests Omar's father is also Nur Said.
Omar has identified her father as Nur Omar Mohamed. In 2019 a spokesperson said Nur Said was a childhood nickname meaning "Happy Light" in Arabic. The Daily Caller noted that Somalis speak Somali, not Arabic. In 2016, Alpha News reported that her father used the name Nur Said on Facebook, citing a post by her sister Sahra Noor, and that Omar had deleted a 2013 tweet naming him as Nur Said.
Asked by MS NOW host Chris Hayes, "You're not related to him at all?" Omar answered, "Not to my knowledge." The Daily Caller's account of that interview says she called the accusation "insane."
What Comes Next
No dates have been given. Things to watch are action by the Justice Department or Homeland Security, whether the search warrant stays sealed, whether any charges follow, and whether Omar or Elmi comments. A Fox News headline says Omar could still face criminal prosecution, though the story behind it was not reviewed. Until officials say more, the public record consists of reports, inferences and a paper whose relevance is unproven.
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