Politics
Meet the longtime biz partner of Ilhan Omar’s husband as questions swirl over her skyrocketing net worth
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
A longtime Democratic operative who worked for top party figures before jumping into private ventures with the now-husband of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., Tim Mynett, is back in the spotlight as swindling allegations resurface and Congress investigates Omar’s skyrocketing net worth via her husband’s companies, according to her financial disclosures.
William Hailer and Mynett, who met working for now-Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison when he was in Congress, were both political operatives before they turned to venture capitalism and the wine industry. Hailer was a senior advisor to former Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez and also has an extensive history working for Ellison, who was the DNC co-chair. Between consulting fees and reimbursements, Hailer raked in over $250,000 advising the DNC and Ellison, according to FEC filings.
The pair also co-founded the political consulting firm E Street Group, which raked in almost $3 million alone from Omar’s House campaigns, and then went on to co-found Rose Lake Capital LLC, a venture capital firm, and eStCru, a wine company, among a web of other ventures they have since embarked on.
Through these business ventures, which include wine and cannabis, Hailer left a trail of fraud and swindling allegations tied to eSt Ventures, which was co-founded by Hailer and Mynett, and the subsequently formed Badlands Fund, which was created to control another investment fund that the pair also created called Badlands Ventures.
TRUMP CALLS FOR INVESTIGATION INTO ILHAN OMAR’S WELATH, SAYS IT SHOULD START ‘NOW’
Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and husband Tim Mynett at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Annual Legislative Conference Phoenix Awards on September 23, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Annual Legislative Conference)
“On information and belief, Defendants formed Badlands Ventures in order to defraud Plaintiffs by soliciting them for purported investments in Dakota and 605 with the present intention of stealing and/or misappropriating most of the money,” the cannabis lawsuit, which listed Hailer and Badlands Ventures as the defendant, states.
The lawsuit claims that the pair solicited donations from local South Dakota cannabis growers who had been raising money among their friends and family. Hailer allegedly promised them that he already had big investors lined up, and would bring in multi-millions more if the local growers forked over around $3.5 million.
However, the additional investment never appeared to materialize despite months of promises that the funds were not far away, according to court complaints. While the money has since been returned, according to public reporting, the defendants claimed that after signing a proposed settlement they were still struggling to get the full amount that they gave to Hailer back. Hailer returned $1.86 million in August 2022 and another $500,000 in October 2023, while the final settlement in 2024 got the remaining $1.2 million back to the investors that was still missing.
The cannabis investors’ attorney eventually said the dispute was settled “amicably.” Meanwhile, local media questioned how Hailer was able to pay the money back considering discovery documents in the case reportedly showed he had less than $750 combined across various business and personal bank accounts.
Following the cannabis incident, Hailer and Mynett faced further allegations of fraud related to their California wine business, eStCru, which saw its valuation jump from between just $15,000 to $50,000 in 2023 to between $1 million and $5 million in 2024.
The winery first appeared on Omar’s disclosure reports after she and Mynett tied the knot in 2020 and the massive valuation jump comes just five years after Hailer complained that eStCru could barely keep the lights on during the COVID-19 pandemic. “ESTCRU LLC like many wineries is living invoice to invoice, sale to sale, to stay afloat given the economic conditions of the industry,” Hailer told the Minnesota Reformer in response to more fraud allegations against him and his wine business with Mynett.
OMAR RIPPED FOR ‘INCITING VIOLENCE’ AFTER MINNEAPOLIS ICE SHOOTING: ‘MAKE SURE THESE PEOPLE PAY’
The situation involved similar promises left unkept aimed at drawing in investors. The business deal involved a D.C.-area restaurant owner who was recommended to invest in Hailer and Mynett’s wine venture by his attorney, Faisal Gill, who also happened to be a former Democratic operative as well, per the Rhode Island Current. “I trusted Tim,” Gill told the outlet. “If it was not for Tim, the deal would have never happened.”
The husband of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., stands alongside a delegation of high-level Minnesota elected representatives greeting former President Joe Biden as he arrives at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in April 2023. (Richard Tsong-Taatarii/Star Tribune via Getty Images)
The restaurant owner, Naeem Mohd, wired $300,000 to Hailer and Mynett, but alleged he never received the 200% returns in 18 months that the pair promised him, arguing the pair knew that the promises were false. Hailer and Mynett also allegedly promised 10% monthly interest payments for as long as the restaurant owner did not see returns, but once again the investor argued that the pair knew this would never come to fruition.
Mohd also alleged in court filings that Hailer and Mynette pressured him into signing an agreement preventing him from filing further suit against them.
In response to the accusations of fraud, a spokesperson told Fox News Digital for the pair’s venture capital firm responded that “Any disputes with these parties have been settled with cases dismissed with prejudice (can not be brought again).”
Hailer and Mynett’s Rose Lake Capital, the other firm that saw a massive valuation jump on Omar’s financial filings, was listed as being worth between $1 and $1,000 in 2023 and then skyrocketing to between $5 million and $25 million the following year.
Amid the scrutiny into the firm’s massive jump in valuation shown in Congresswoman Omar’s most recent financial filings, the firm co-founded by Hailer and Mynett came under fire for scrubbing their firm’s website of various high-profile individuals that it said were its advisors. Among those listed were former members of Congress and other well-connected persons, including former Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont.
The New York Post reported that Baucus said he had several phone calls with Hailer back in 2022-2023 about a proposed deal to make storage units. “Then nothing came of it” beyond occasional emails from Hailer, Baucus told The Post. “That went on for about four or five months or so, then just radio silence.”
“He stopped writing his emails about the investment – about how well he’s doing, all that stuff. You can read between the lines – it sounded a little bit fishy,” Baucus told The Post.
Baucus did not respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, a spokesperson for Rose Lake Capital denied that there was anything irregular about Senator Baucus’s engagement with Rose Lake.
A spokesperson for Rose Lake defended removing the names from its website, noting that it did so in response to “hate-filled messages.”
“All names were removed from the website when hate-filled messages were being sent to various members listed by individuals who have read stories in various publications,” the spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
Rep. Ilhan Omar sits with husband Tim Mynett during the first day of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center on August 19, 2024, in Chicago, Illinois. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Hailer and Rose Lake Capital were also embroiled in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy case that included allegations Hailer was encouraged to leave the country so he wouldn’t have to testify and would disrupt the sale. When asked during the bankruptcy hearing why he didn’t get on the flight to Dubai in order to skip the hearing, Hailer said, “Sometimes it’s better to do the right than the easy thing.”
Currently, both congressional and federal investigators are looking into the massive valuation jump by Hailer and Mynett’s venture capital fund and wine business. The scrutiny follows backlash from the 2019 – 2020 election cycle, during which Omar was caught funneling millions in campaign cash to a firm Mynett co-founded with Hailer called the E Street Group.
The expenses covered a range of services, including cable advertising, “digital consulting,” video production and editing. Omar claimed that her relationship with her husband began long after her campaign started working with his firm. The payments, while not illegal, generated backlash for Omar and her husband.
In 2021, Republicans in Congress introduced the Oversight for Members And Relatives Act or “OMAR Act,” aimed at closing the loophole in federal anti-nepotism law that permitted Omar to funnel her campaign cash to Mynett and his firm.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
“For too long, lawmakers of both political parties have engaged in the ethically dubious practice of pocketing campaign funds by ‘hiring’ their spouses and laundering the money as campaign related expenses,” Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-Wisc., said at the time.
The fresh scrutiny into Omar and her husband comes amid rampant fraud uncovered in Minnesota under the purview of Democratic Party leaders that estimates say could amount to as much as $9 billion in missing funds, and questions on whether Omar or anyone else benefited from it. The fraud has involved various social services and welfare schemes, including Medicare and childcare funding, and many of those convicted have been part of Minnesota’s ballooning Somali population.
Fox News Digital reached out to Hailer, Mynett, and Omar’ office.
Editor’s Note: This article has updated the quote attributed to former Senator Baucus to reflect updates made to the New York Post article from which this quote was drawn and to include an updated statement from a spokesperson for Rose Lake Capital.
Sam Dorman, Peter Hasson and Fox News Digital’s Leo Briceno contributed to this report.
The Education Department has opened a civil rights investigation into whether Smith College, the women’s school in Northampton, Mass., violated anti-discrimination laws by allowing transgender students to enroll.
The inquiry broadens the Trump administration’s bid to limit rights for the nation’s transgender students by targeting school admissions for the first time. Until now, the administration had mostly targeted policies that allowed for transgender women to participate in women’s sports and use women’s bathrooms.
By investigating Smith, the administration is raising the question of whether allowing transgender women to enroll at a women’s college — and providing access to “women-only” spaces such as bathrooms, dormitories and locker rooms — violates civil rights protections for women.
Kimberly Richey, the assistant secretary for civil rights at the Education Department, said in a statement that “an all-women’s college loses all meaning if it is admitting biological males.”
“Allowing biological males into spaces designed for women raises serious concerns about privacy, fairness and compliance under federal law,” Ms. Richey said. “The Trump administration will continue to uphold the law and fight to restore common sense.”
The college issued a statement acknowledging the investigation and stating that it remained “fully committed to its institutional values, including compliance with civil rights laws.”
About 4.7 percent of college students identify as transgender, according to the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine, a group of doctors and scientists that has called for more government regulation of pediatric gender medicine.
The federal investigation was in response to a civil-rights complaint filed by Defending Education, a nonprofit group founded in 2021 that has become one of the leading voices in the growing parents’ rights movement. Several of the group’s complaints have sparked federal civil rights investigations during the past year, and its research is often cited during congressional hearings by conservative lawmakers.
Formerly known as Parents Defending Education, the Arlington, Va.-based group posted on its website a letter from the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights on Monday announcing the investigation into Smith.
Smith, one of the nation’s largest women’s schools with about 2,500 students, has been admitting transgender students since 2015, along with several other top women’s colleges. The issue became a lightning rod at women’s colleges after a transgender applicant was denied acceptance to Smith in 2013 because her gender identity did not match her financial aid forms.
Since then, most women’s colleges updated their admissions policies to welcome transgender applicants. One notable exception has been Sweet Briar College in central Virginia, which does not admit transgender students and helps students in transition transfer to another college.
The Trump administration resolved 30 percent fewer civil rights complaints in the nation’s schools in 2025 compared with the Biden administration in 2024, the sharpest year-over-year decline in at least three decades. But the new administration has opened more than 40 civil rights investigations into schools and other educational institutions that provide protections for transgender students.
The Education Department has taken the unusual step of backing out of civil rights agreements that previous administrations negotiated to protect transgender students. The government has also sued state education departments and high school athletic associations in California and Minnesota over policies that permit transgender athletes to participate in school sports.
Politics
Elizabeth Warren’s Bezos Met Gala jab backfires as critics mercilessly drag ‘un-American’ lawmaker
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., drew intense criticism on Monday after she claimed on X that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos should pay more in taxes in response to him sponsoring the Met Gala, with conservatives questioning the senator’s record and accusing her of misrepresenting facts.
“The answer to everything, up to and apparently including bankrupting an airline at the cost of something like 15,000 jobs and the entire concept of budget airfare, is ‘Jeff Bezos has a lot of money though,’” venture capitalist and media founder Mike Solana wrote in response to Warren’s post.
Solana was referring to the recent demise of Spirit Airlines. Conservative commentators claim Spirit could have been saved if Warren hadn’t pushed to block JetBlue’s acquisition of the budget carrier on anti-trust grounds in 2024.
“If Jeff Bezos can drop $10 million to sponsor the Met Gala, he can afford to pay his fair share in taxes,” Warren said on Monday, sparking the glut of pushback from social media users.
WASHINGTON POST ARGUES THERE’S ‘LITTLE TO GAIN BY RAISING TAXES ON THE RICH,’ RATES ALREADY HIGH ENOUGH
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., questions Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen during a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on March 16, 2023. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
Following news that Bezos had cut an eight-figure check to fund the Met Gala, liberals in the entertainment industry such as Mark Ruffalo and Taraji P. Henson joined Warren in criticizing Amazon and Bezos for their allegedly unethical business practices. Protesters appeared outside the gala on Monday holding signs criticizing Bezos. One demonstrator was detained for trying to break into the event.
Warren’s message backfired online, as commenters pointed to the demise of Spirit Airlines and took issue with her tax policies across the years.
“Jeff Bezos employs over 1.5 million people at Amazon,” X user Gina Milan wrote. “You’re responsible for 17,000 workers losing their jobs and for blocking the merger that ultimately killed Spirit Airlines.”
Spirit put downward pressure on prices at other airlines and its folding could lead to an increase in overall travel prices, industry analysts told USA Today. Estimated job losses stemming from Spirit’s shuttering include approximately 15,000 direct employees and an additional 2,000 indirect employees.
“This myth just won’t die,” Reason Magazine reporter Billy Binion posted, responding to Warren’s assertion that Bezos isn’t paying enough in taxes. “In 2024 alone, it’s estimated Jeff Bezos paid almost $3 billion in taxes. Painting rich people as tax avoiders plays great on social media, but it’s not reality. The U.S. has the most progressive tax system in the developed world.”
Forbes estimates that Bezos paid $2.7 billion in taxes in 2024 after he sold $13.6 billion worth of Amazon stock. He reduced his tax burden that year by donating $2.5 billion in Amazon shares to charity over the three prior years. Bezos paid nearly $1 billion in taxes between 2014 and 2018, according to a ProPublica analysis of tax documents.
To minimize tax burdens, billionaires like Bezos often take out loans secured against their massive stock holdings to acquire spending money, according to securities filings reviewed by ProPublica. Since the IRS doesn’t consider loans income, this setup gives the wealthy access to cash without having to pay income taxes.
FROM ‘JUMP ON A BUS’ TO TAX CRACKDOWNS: BLUE STATES CHASE WEALTHY RESIDENTS FLEEING TO RED HAVENS
Billionaire Jeff Bezos attends the DealBook Summit. Critics on social media have accused Bezos of allowing the Washington Post to suffer amid hundreds of staff layoffs. (Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for The New York Times)
Some on social media pushed Warren for specifics on how she plans to make Bezos pay his “fair share.”
“What’s his fair share?” Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, asked Warren. “What tax rate?”
Warren has proposed a wealth tax, charging households with net worths above $1 billion an annual tax worth 6% of their total wealth. Under Warren’s proposal, households with net worths between $50 million and $1 billion would be subject to a similar 2% tax.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren speaks to a staff member before the Senate Banking Committee hearing on oversight of credit reporting agencies on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on April 27, 2023. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
CALIFORNIA’S HATRED FOR CAPITALISM IS KILLING THE GOOSE THAT LAID ITS GOLDEN EGG
Much of the growth in wealth experienced by Bezos and other billionaires comes through the unrealized gains of their assets, which Warren’s tax would target.
Writer Mike Coté pointed out that Bezos is “so rich that he can simply leave the jurisdiction or get citizenship elsewhere” if Warren’s tax plans were signed into law.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
“Liz Warren does not want progressive taxation,” he continued. “She wants confiscatory taxation. It’s fundamentally un-American. And it doesn’t work.”
Warren’s office did not respond to a request for comment sent by Fox News Digital Tuesday morning.
WASHINGTON — The United States has launched a new military operation to ensure commercial shipping vessels can safely pass through the Strait of Hormuz, deploying scores of warships, fighter jets and drones to counter Iranian efforts that have threatened the narrow waterway that carries a fifth of the world’s oil.
At a news conference Tuesday at the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the new initiative — dubbed “Project Freedom” — is a temporary and defensive operation meant to resume the flow of traffic through the international waterway as hostilities have continued in the region.
“We are not looking for a fight, but Iran cannot be allowed to block innocent countries and their goods from an international waterway,” Hegseth said, while calling Iran’s tactics “international extortion.”
The operation comes nearly a month after the United States reached a fragile ceasefire deal with Iran, a truce that Hegseth said remains in effect even though Tehran has continued to attack U.S. forces and commercial vessels.
“The ceasefire is not over,” Hegseth said.
Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that since the ceasefire took effect, Iran has fired at commercial vessels nine times, seized two container ships and attacked U.S. forces more than 10 times. All of these instances, he said, are “below the threshold of restarting major combat operations at this point.”
Those attacks have left more than 1,550 vessels trapped in the Arabian Gulf, unable to transit, disrupting global trade and pushing energy markets toward crisis, with fuel prices climbing and shipping costs surging.
The new U.S. mission was cast as separate from the broader military campaign over Iran’s nuclear weapons program. As negotiations to denuclearize Iran continue, Caine said commercial vessels wanting to cross the strait will now “see, hear and frankly feel the U.S. combat power around them, on the sea, in the skies and on the radio.”
Two U.S. commercial vessels, escorted by Navy destroyers, have already moved through the Strait, Hegseth said.
“We know the Iranians are embarrassed by this fact,” Hegseth said. “They said they control the strait, they do not.”
Hegseth called the operation a “direct gift from the United States to the world,” aimed at resuming traffic through one of the world’s most vital waterways.
“To what remains of Iran’s forces: if you attack American troops or innocent commercial shipping, you will face overwhelming and devastating American firepower,” Hegseth said. “The president has been very clear about this.”
On Tuesday evening local time, the UAE’s defense ministry said in a statement on X that the country’s defensive systems “are actively engaging with missiles and UAV threats and that “sounds heard across the across the country are the result of ongoing engaging operations.”
Tuesday’s barrage marks the second consecutive day of attacks targeting the UAE since the U.S.-Iran ceasefire took hold on April 8. On Monday, the UAE said it engaged a total of 12 ballistic missiles, three cruise missiles and four drones launched from Iran.
For its part, Iran said it had no “pre-planned program” to attack the UAE’s oil facilities, but that attacks were prompted by the United States’ plans to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, according to an unnamed military official quoted by Iranian State TV.
“What happened was the product of the U.S. military’s adventurism to create a passage for ships to illegally pass through” the Strait, the official said, adding the U.S. military “must be held accountable for it.”
Ceballos reported from Washington, Bulos from Beirut.
-
News19 minutes agoTrump-backed Ramaswamy wins Ohio governor primary, setting up a competitive Nov. race
-
New York2 hours agoIn Attack on Mamdani, Vornado Chief Likens ‘Tax the Rich’ to Hate Speech
-
Detroit, MI2 hours agoTigers’ Framber Valdez ejected as benches clear after hit-by-pitch
-
San Francisco, CA2 hours agoCalifornia dominates top 10 priciest U.S. cities for homeowners — here’s what you need to earn
-
Dallas, TX3 hours agoThe Strokes Aren’t Coming to Texas, but Cover Band Different Strokes is Playing Friday
-
Miami, FL3 hours agoTrust in crypto remains biggest barrier to adoption, say Consensus Miami 2026 panelists
-
Boston, MA3 hours agoTwo Boston city councilors slam Mayor Wu for cutting $724K from veterans budget: ‘Unconscionable’
-
Denver, CO3 hours agoDenver area faces hazardous Wednesday morning commute as heavy, wet snow begins to fall