Ilhan Omar’s Ex-Husband And Alleged Brother Describes Himself As ‘Gay Man’ While Frey Aide Says Allegations ‘Almost Certainly True’

Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, the ex-husband of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) who is accused of being her brother, identified himself as a “gay man” in an academic paper published in August. The disclosure surfaces as the Department of Justice is investigating whether the couple’s 2009 marriage was a sham.

Elmi, a doctoral researcher at the University of Bristol, wrote that his study of violence against gay people in Africa was “not just an academic undertaking” because of “the complexities of [his] identity” as a “gay man of the East African diaspora.”

Ilhan Omar’s former husband, who has long been accused of being her BROTHER, said he was a gay man!

Ahmed Nur Said Elmi made the revelation in an academic paper published in August, writing: 

“As a GAY MAN of the East African diaspora, my fieldwork was never neutral.”… pic.twitter.com/CmoSvO3e2e

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) October 30, 2026

Omar, asked in an MS NOW interview whether she married her brother, answered “Not to my knowledge” and called the claim “insane.” She has denied any wrongdoing, and no court has found that she committed immigration fraud.

YIKES: Ilhan Omar was just asked if she married her brother on Live TV

Her answer: “Not to my knowledge…”

WHAT?!

She can’t even say “NO”?!

What other person would answer this question like that? 

Things are about to get bad for Ilhan. pic.twitter.com/n8wwJb4puy

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) October 22, 2026

Joe Radinovich, a longtime political adviser to Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, wrote on X Thursday that Democrats should understand the allegation is “almost certainly true.” Radinovich, a former Democratic state lawmaker, managed Frey’s 2017 and 2021 mayoral campaigns and served as his chief of staff.

Democrats should understand that the allegation is almost certainly true – whatever conclusion they draw from that point could vary – and her denials calling it a right-wing, Islamophobic or racist conspiracy are almost certainly not. https://t.co/mJDm0JKU7e

— Joe Radinovich (@joeradinovich) October 29, 2026

His post came as 175 House Democrats called for an end to the federal investigation in a letter accusing the DOJ and DHS of the “weaponization of law enforcement.”

In a follow-up, Radinovich said he would be “very, very careful” about how he qualified allegations around Omar’s finances, “where her defense looks similar and where no meaningful questions have been answered publicly, and where any objective look at the evidence doesn’t look…great.”

And then I’d be very, very careful about how I qualified on allegations around her finances – where her defense looks similar and where no meaningful questions have been answered publicly, and where any objective look at the evidence doesn’t look…great.

— Joe Radinovich (@joeradinovich) October 29, 2026

Radinovich has history with Omar: he ran Don Samuels’s 2022 and 2024 Democratic primary challenges against her, both of which she won.

“I believe the Trump DOJ has next to no credibility … but I’m pretty confident this specific allegation is true,” Radinovich wrote in reply to a critic who told him he knew the case was “a baseless and manufactured witch hunt.” He said he wasn’t sure the timing of the raid was appropriate, though “it’s notable a DC judge signed off on it.”

You’re right. I’m not stupid. I believe the Trump DOJ has next to no credibility and that it’s unclear to me the timing of the raid was appropriate – though it’s notable a DC judge signed off on it – but I’m pretty confident this specific allegation is true.

— Joe Radinovich (@joeradinovich) October 29, 2026

“Vibes is what it would take to believe her at this point,” he wrote in another reply. “There’s plenty of evidence and sourcing available if you don’t dismiss it out of hand.”

A Christian minister married Omar, who is Muslim, to Elmi on Feb. 12, 2009, according to the New York Post. By that date, Omar already had two children with Ahmed Hirsi, whom she wed in a 2002 religious ceremony without ever entering a legal marriage. Three months after the wedding, in May 2009, Hirsi listed the address on the Omar-Elmi marriage license as his own home. Omar had a third child with Hirsi in 2012 and divorced Elmi in 2017.

Tabloids have labeled Elmi “flamboyant” based on his social media posts, but the paper marks the first explicit statement of his sexual orientation. The paper reflects on interviews Elmi conducted with research subjects in Kenya and draws on terms from academic theory, including “standpoint theory” and “fluid insider-outsider positioning.”

“It has all the features of woke slop: Not methodologically serious, ideologically slanted, and more concerned with academic ornamentation than clear communication,” Ian Kingsbury, senior director of the Center for Accountability in Medicine at Do No Harm, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “The fact that it’s so tedious and painful to read signals that it isn’t meant for an audience outside a small clique of sociologists or gender theorists.”

Department of Homeland Security agents raided Omar’s Washington, D.C., home on Oct. 12 as part of the ongoing immigration fraud probe. The investigation reportedly began in the department’s war crimes unit. Omar claims to have obtained her naturalization through her father, a Somali military official, however, recent reports revealed that after she was elected to Congress, her staff got her birth year changed from 1981 to 1982, a revision that, if true, would undermine her claim that she derived citizenship as a minor when her father naturalized in 2000.

The New York Times reported Thursday that investigators are also reviewing evidence of a sham marriage between Omar and Elmi. A heavily redacted Justice Department filing identifies Omar as “Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, a/k/a Ilhan Abdullahi Omar.” Somali women traditionally keep their own names after marriage. Under Somali naming conventions, a child’s first name comes before the first names of the father, paternal grandfather and paternal great-grandfather.

Applying that system, Elmi’s name on the marriage certificate identifies him as the son of a man named Nur Said. The DOJ filing identifies Omar as the daughter of Nur Said. Omar has said her father’s name is Nur Omar Mohamed. An archived Facebook post by her sister Sahra Noor shows that he used the name Nur Said, and Omar herself referred to him as Nur Said in a since-deleted tweet. In 2019, a spokesperson for Omar said “Nur Said” was a childhood nickname meaning “Happy Light” in Arabic. Somali is the first language of most Somalis, though Arabic also holds official status in Somalia.

Archived social media posts also connect Omar to people who share her ex-husband’s patronymic names and identify them as her siblings. A 2016 Facebook post names one of them, Leila Elmi, as Omar’s sister. On her own marriage certificate, Leila Elmi lists “Nur Said Elmi” as her father.