Meet Tim Mynett — The Man Who Reportedly Left Wife For Congresswoman Ilhan Omar
Mynett and Rep. Omar are allegedly in love.
Getty Sex scandals are no new thing in Washington D.C. It's not unusual for powerful people to have extramarital affairs that disrupt their marriages, their public images and their political futures. Representative Ilhan Omar hasn't been in Washington for very long but she has allegedly already done that very thing.
A political consultant named Tim Mynett told his soon-to-be-ex-wife that he's in love with Omar and he wants to get divorced to be with Omar. The Representative from Minnesota hired Mynett's firm to help run her campaign and he alleges that the relationship grew from there. Omar, however, denies all the rumors and says she isn't separated from her husband.
Who is Tim Mynett? Read on to find out.
1. Political campaign consultant
According to Tim Mynett's LinkedIn page, he has been working on political activities since at least 2009. In 2014, he had his own campaign consulting firm called the Mynett Group, though it appears he signed on as a partner with another firm called The E Street Group in 2018. He lists political fundraising as his specialty and according to filings, the E Street group has billed the Omar campaign almost a quarter of a million dollars for digital communications, internet advertising, and travel expenses, reports the Washington Post. Until earlier this year, Mynett was married to Dr. Beth Mynett, a D.C. area physician and the couple have a 13-year-old son together.
2. Representative Ilhan Omar
Omar has received enormous attention since her election to Congress. As we noted here, Omar, a Somali refugee who arrived in the U.S. as a teen, was the first Somali-American to be elected to the state legislature in Minnesota. After serving in state government for two years, she ran for Congress, winning her district easily and heading to D.C. as the first Somali-American elected to Congress and one of the first two Muslim women in the House of Representatives. Once in DC, she attracted a lot of attention as one of "The Squad," a group of four, young, first-year female Members of Congress. She, along with Ayanna Pressley, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib made waves by being outspoken progressives who have bucked Democratic leadership at times. They have also attracted the attention of Donald Trump and other conservatives who have used social media to criticize them. The result has been a surge of threats against the four lawmakers, some of which have resulted in arrests of people planning to do them harm.
Omar claps back at critics.
3. Stunning divorce filing
Now Beth Mynett has filed for divorce from her husband, alleging that the marriage cannot be reconciled due to his ongoing affair with Rep. Omar. According to the New York Post: "The parties physically separated on or about April 7, 2019, when Defendant told Plaintiff that he was romantically involved with and in love with another woman, Ilhan Omar.”
The filing went on to explain: "Defendant met Rep. Omar while working for her. Although devastated by the betrayal and deceit that preceded his abrupt declaration, Plaintiff told Defendant that she loved him, and was willing to fight for the marriage. Defendant, however, told her that was not an option for him and moved out the next day," the Post reports. “It is clear to Plaintiff that her marriage to Defendant is over and that there is no hope of reconciliation.’’
4. Full custody of their son
Dr. Mynett is asking for full custody of the couple's 13-year-old son, in part because she doesn't feel like being with Rep. Omar in public is safe, given the threats to her life. The divorce papers say that Mynett took the teen out to dinner with Rep Omar, which “put his son in harm’s way by taking him out in public with Rep. Omar, who at that time had garnered a plethora of media attention along with death threats, one rising to the level of arresting the known would-be assassin that same week.” In addition, due to Mynett's travel schedule, most basic parenting tasks, including “the vast majority of responsibilities related to [their son’s] school, medical care, and extracurricular activities,’’ have already fallen to Dr. Mynett.
Dr. Mynett has filed for divorce over the affair.
5. History of volatility
In addition to the affair, Dr. Mynett says her estranged husband has “has a history of emotional volatility, that can cause him to become easily angered and rageful," and that he is currently claiming financial instability. He says that his business is floundering and he is nearly broke, according to the New York Post. However, a quick look at the website for The E Street Group, where he is a partner, shows that the firm is on such solid footing that it is only accepting clients by referral. Dr. Mynett asserts that her husband travels frequently with Omar, but says “Defendant’s more recent travel and long work hours now appear to be more related to his affair with Rep. Omar than with his actual work commitments,” which might be why his career has stalled out.
6. Denials from Omar
Though the New York Post asserts that Omar has recently separated from her husband Ahmed Abdisalan Hirsi, who works in Minnesota as an advisor to a city council member in Minneapolis. In an interview with a TV station, Omar said that was not true, nor was it true that she is dating anyone. She said: "I have no interest in allowing the conversation about my personal life to continue and so I have no desire to discuss it.”
Hirsi is Omar's second husband. The two had a relationship for several years but did not marry and eventually split up. She was later married to Ahmed Nur Said Elmi. Elmi and Omar divorced according to Muslim law in 2011 and she reconciled with Hirsi at that time. She and Elmi got a legal divorce in 2017, at which time she and Hirsi married one another. Omar and Hirsi have three children together. He has not commented on the allegations about his wife's affair at the time of this writing.
Rebekah Kuschmider has been writing about celebrities, pop culture, entertainment, and politics since 2010. Her work has been seen at Ravishly, Babble, Scary Mommy, The Mid, Redbook online, and The Broad Side. She is the creator of the blog Stay at Home Pundit and she is a cohost of the weekly podcast The More Perfect Union.