“Ilhan Omar’s campaign cash to consultants dipped by millions after halting payments to husband’s firm,” by Joe Schoffstall, Fox News, February 9, 2023:

Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar’s campaign cash to consultants fell by millions of dollars after she removed her husband’s firm from her payroll, a Fox News Digital review of federal filings has found.

The Minnesota lawmaker dished out millions of dollars from her campaign’s coffers to the E Street Group, a political consulting firm co-owned by her husband, Tim Mynett, during the 2020 election cycle. Mynett’s group had raked in half of Omar’s total expenditures, making it the committee’s largest vendor during that election.

But after facing increased scrutiny over the payments, Omar abruptly changed course from her once defiant state and cut off the cash flow to the E Street group shortly before the switch into the 2022 cycle. Now, her campaign pays far less for the same services to various other firms, calling into question the high nature of the E Street Group’s past charges.

Following her husband’s firm’s removal, Omar’s expenses towards similar services fell by around $2 million, according to a review of Federal Election Commission filings.

Omar’s committee previously paid the E Street Group nearly $3 million for its work, including advertisements across multiple platforms, direct mail, video production and editing, fundraising consulting, and research, among other services.

But during the 2022 election cycle, Omar’s campaign only doled out around $1 million to a handful of Washington, D.C., Minnesota, and California-based firms for those same services, a search of her filings shows.

One of the groups that picked up the fundraising slack, Barnett Strategies LLC, is owned by Rachel Barnett, a former director at the E Street Group.