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Of all the scandals in which Ilhan Omar is enmeshed, one might think the Daily Mail's revelation this past July of her affair with political consultant Tim Mynett would be the least of them. The news last week of Beth Mynett's divorce filing, however, has begun to disillusion a Somali community that has taken Omar at face value. Not cool — not cool at all, and it has thrown Omar off her game.

Omar's denial of the affair is a lie that is both obvious and bald-faced. She has therefore run from the tabloid newspapers and the local media as they have sought to report on the scandal. See, for example, Ebony Bowden's New York Post article and accompanying video "Ilhan Omar dodges questions from The Post about alleged affair."

For Omar, offense has always proved the best defense. In this scandal she has run out of plays.

The scandal has pushed the incredible panoply of scandals we have covered in depth on Power Line into the background: the identity fraud, the marriage fraud, the immigration fraud, the tax fraud.

In the past three weeks I have circled back to interview sources whom I have found to be highly reliable in the Omar saga. They open a window onto the scandals from the perspective of Ahmed Hirsi, her long-time partner and the father of her three children. According to sources, Hirsi is telling friends:

• that he will not go to jail for Omar;
• that while Omar did indeed marry her brother (Ahmed Elmi) for fraudulent purposes, Hirsi did not know at the time that she had married Elmi;
• that Omar is threatening Hirsi he would be in trouble along with her if the truth were to come out;
• that Omar has asked him to state publicly that all is well with their marriage even though it is completely done and finished; and
• that in fact they are living apart and have been divorced under Islamic law (although they remain legally married).

Having humiliated Ahmed Hirsi by her affair with Tim Mynett, Omar now wants Hirsi to perform public relations services for her to suppress the scandal. That is cold.

Hirsi has maintained his silence through all the scandals so far. One may infer that there is a good reason why Hirsi has never spoken up on Omar's behalf in any of these scandals. Hirsi's knowledge of Omar's conduct is knowledge of her wrongdoing.

Rather than respond in substance to questions based on the known facts and evidence, Omar has wildly accused us and others of bigotry. Among the others she has now implicitly accused of bigotry is the Star Tribune, which has treated Omar almost entirely as a hometown hero. This is how Omar rolled in the Star Tribune page-one story of June 23 on the state campaign finance board findings that gave new life to the scandals we have pursued:

Omar's reticence is consistent with near total silence she has maintained for three years amid questions raised through public records picked over by conservative opinion journalists intent on proving that she committed immigration fraud. Those attacks, she once tweeted, are the provenance of "fake journalists on bigoted blogs."

Omar spokesman Jeremy Slevin issued a statement Friday [June 21] asserting that the questions about her personal life are illegitimate:

"Since before she was elected to office, Ilhan has been the subject of conspiracy theories and false accusations about her personal life. Emboldened by a president who openly treats immigrants, refugees and Muslims as invaders, these attacks often stem from the presumption that Ilhan — like others who share those identities — is somehow illegitimate or not fully American.

"Ilhan has shared more than most public officials ever do about the details of her personal life — even when it is personally painful," he continued. "Whether by colluding with right-wing outlets to go after Muslim elected officials or hounding family members, legitimate media outlets have a responsibility not to fan the flames of hate. Continuing to do so is not only demeaning to Ilhan, but to her entire family."

When it comes to the Star Tribune, Omar is an ingrate as well as a liar.

Beyond her accusations of bigotry, her false denials, and her nonresponse responses, Omar's lies have been the order of the day for three years running. Her act is getting old and wearing thin. One wonders how long she can keep the lid on.

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The British government has officially lost its working majority in the UK parliament after Tory MP Phillip Lee quit to join the Liberal Democrats, delivering a hammer blow to Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

While making his G7 statement to the House of Commons, Johnson was forced to shout over the roars of support for Lee, an ardent Remainer, who took his seat with his new Lib Dem colleagues on the opposition benches.

It means the prime minister is now in charge of a minority government. It's a humiliating turn of events for Johnson, at a time when he is seeking to push through Brexit, deal or no deal, by October 31.

In a damning statement posted on social media, Lee blasted the Tory government for "aggressively pursuing a damaging Brexit in unprincipled ways," adding that Johnson's administration is using "political manipulation, bullying and lies."

He bemoaned the negative transformation of this "once great party," claiming that it had become infected by "twin diseases of populism and English nationalism."

It comes as British lawmakers have reconvened after the summer recess and are debating ahead of a planned vote on new legislation which would prevent a no-deal Brexit. The vote is expected to take place around 9pm BST on Tuesday.

Tory purge begins? Hammond among Brexit rebel MPs thrown out of Conservative party

British PM Boris Johnson appears to be purging his party after losing a no-deal Brexit vote in the House of Commons. Former Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond is the first on the chopping block.

Hammond was one of the 21 Tories who voted in favor of the motion, put forth by Sir Oliver Letwin and Labour MP Hilary Benn on Tuesday evening, to debate an extension of Brexit to January 31 and take the no-deal option off the table. Johnson threatened them all with expulsion from the party, and appears to be making good on that threat.

All 21 "rebels" have been thrown out of the Conservative Party, the BBC reported citing sources inside the government on Tuesday evening. This includes Hammond, Ken Clarke, Greg Clark, David Gauke, Justine Greening, and Nicholas Soames, among others.

Soames, grandson of Winston Churchill, said he will not stand in the upcoming snap election, after being expelled from the party he represented for 37 years. He has been MP for Mid Sussex since 1997, and the MP for Crowley for nearly 14 years before that.

'Chaos unseen since WWII': UK parliament subverts democracy, leaves pre-Brexit Britain ungoverned

The step closer to blocking a no-deal Brexit "effectively takes the Brexit process out of the hands of [Prime Minister] Boris Johnson" and places it in the hands of the opposition and the Tory rebels, former MP and RT contributor said following the vote on Tuesday.

The 328-301 vote was not a victory for Johnson's government, and according to Galloway, a sign that tomorrow's vote could mark "two government defeats over Brexit in two consecutive days, largely at the hands of their own rebels."

The Parliament will vote on Wednesday to determine whether a no-deal Brexit will be permitted, and whether a general election will be held next month.

It is chaos in Parliament. Britain is effectively now ungoverned just weeks before we're supposed to leave the European Union... Not since Hitler was at the Channel ports in 1940 and Chamberlain was brought down and replaced by Sir Winston Churchill has Britain been in a more chaotic and precarious place.

Meanwhile, the pro-Remain Parliament is almost guaranteeing they'll get the worst possible deal, journalist Neil Clark told RT, noting that "it's just basic common sense that if you're going to any negotiations...and you tell the person you're negotiating with that you will in no circumstances leave without a deal, then you're not likely to get a very good deal, because there's no incentive for the other side to make concessions."

Clark sees the conflict as a clash between direct democracy - the 2016 referendum that gave the country Brexit in the first place - and the indirect democracy of a pro-Remain Parliament.

"Time after time in our history, and particularly in recent years, we've seen Parliament actually subverting what the public wanted, whether it's war with Iraq...whether it's privatization, issue after issue Parliament has taken a different line on things than the public."

I think people have had enough in Britain. People are sick of this. People just want Brexit to happen... Even Remainers I think are the same - they just want this to be finished off now, it's gone on far too long.

While polls show Johnson's government is "not terribly popular, the opposition Labour party is even less popular," journalist George Szamuely told RT. As long as the Conservatives form some kind of "tactical alliance" with the Brexit Party in order to avoid facing off against each other during the general election, Johnson is likely to come out on top - especially as he has "withdrawn the whip from everybody who has voted against the government" on Brexit, Szamuely predicted. "He's gambling everything on the general election."

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