Mullin Tells Benny Johnson Omar “Married Her Brother,” Says “Something’s Going to Happen” (Video)

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said Thursday that Rep. Ilhan Omar married her brother to bring him into the United States and that “something’s going to happen,” describing the matter as an ongoing federal investigation that could reach her naturalization if investigators prove she lied on immigration paperwork. Mullin made the remarks to conservative podcaster Benny Johnson at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas. He offered no charging documents, no newly released records, and no announced case. Omar has long denied the allegation.

“We know that she married her brother to try to bring him into the United States,” Mullin told Johnson. “We know he lives now in London.” He said investigators were also looking at “the whole family migration and possibly some illegal activity for them to come to the United States to begin with. But all of this, we’re investigating.” Asked about consequences, he said, “Something’s going to happen. This is an ongoing investigation.” He added that any case would have to rest on evidence: “If we actually move a case forward, it’s not a political case, it’s actually a case because they did things wrong.” On the legal theory, he said lying on an immigration application has “no expiration,” and that if the government can prove someone “shouldn’t have been here in the first place, we’ll deport you.”

Omar, a Somali-born Democrat who represents Minnesota’s 5th District, was granted asylum as a child with her father and siblings in 1995 and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2000 at age 17. She legally married British citizen Ahmed Nur Said Elmi in Minnesota in 2009. They divorced in 2017. Elmi later returned to England. Critics have argued for years that Elmi is her biological brother and that the marriage was a paper arrangement to obtain immigration benefits — marriage fraud if proven. Omar has called those claims “absurd and offensive” and “absolutely false and ridiculous.” She also had a long relationship with Ahmed Hirsi, married him in an Islamic ceremony, legally married him in 2018 after the Elmi divorce, later divorced Hirsi, and married Tim Mynett in 2020. No court has found that Elmi is her brother. Siblings of a U.S. citizen can already sponsor one another for residency, a point fact-checkers have used to question why a sibling marriage would have been necessary; Mullin did not address that in the interview.

The allegation first drew national attention around 2019, when then-President Trump and conservative groups called for an inquiry. A Daily Mail report cited unnamed sources claiming Omar had told friends the “second husband” was her brother; that account has not been proven in court. Last year, White House border czar Tom Homan said the administration was looking at Omar’s immigration history after a fraud investigator flagged it. ICE later refused to release certain Omar-related records, citing an ongoing investigation. Mullin’s Thursday comments went further than prior public statements by asserting the sibling marriage as known fact while still describing the file as open. Denaturalization after citizenship generally requires the government to prove material fraud or concealment in the naturalization process; even then, a separate proceeding would follow. Mullin did not say such a complaint had been filed.

Omar’s office has not issued a new detailed rebuttal to Mullin’s convention remarks in the coverage reviewed Saturday. She has previously treated the brother claim as a recycled smear. No indictment, civil denaturalization complaint, or ICE charging document has been made public. Mullin said investigators would move only if they could prove wrongdoing and that the statute of limitations does not wipe out a false statement on an application. Johnson posted video of the exchange. The interview took place as the administration has separately expanded denaturalization filings and interior enforcement; those efforts have not, as of Saturday, produced a public case against Omar.