Rep. Ilhan Omar told TMZ on Wednesday that she believes "a lot of people" in Congress smoke cannabis, offering the claim as part of a broader push to legalize marijuana at the federal level. What the Minnesota Democrat did not mention: her husband's marijuana business ventures have drawn a federal ethics complaint, a flurry of lawsuits, and questions about whether Omar herself filed misleading financial disclosures.
Omar, who co-chairs the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, framed legalization as a matter of fiscal common sense and criminal-justice reform. But her personal entanglement with the cannabis industry, through her husband Tim Mynett's failed business dealings, adds a layer of self-interest that her public comments left entirely unaddressed.
The congresswoman's remarks, first reported by The National Desk out of Washington, came after TMZ asked whether she found it "weird" that many members of Congress were not open "stoners." Omar pushed back on the premise, insisting that supporting legalization does not require personal use.
"I will say, advocacy for legalizing doesn't necessarily mean that you are a user, so everybody can be an advocate to legalizing it because we understand that it is not OK for us to spend the billions of dollars we do now in incarcerating people for smoking a joint."
When pressed to elaborate, Omar went further.
"I think there are a lot of people who smoke cannabis in Congress."
She offered no names, no evidence, and no specifics, just the broad assertion, delivered as though it were common knowledge on Capitol Hill.
In the same exchange, Omar gave President Donald Trump credit for shifting the Republican Party's stance on "different kinds of drugs." The remark is notable given Omar's long record of clashing with the president on virtually every other policy front. On cannabis, at least, she appears willing to acknowledge common ground.
Omar also called for continued coalition-building and urged direct engagement with the White House. She told TMZ that both Congress and the president hold the power to act on federal legalization.
"We need to continue building the coalition, we need to continue to have people speak to the president. He has the power, Congress has the power, and it's time for us to come together and get this done."
She described incremental progress as welcome but insufficient. "I think any step forward is a good step, but we need to go farther than where we are yet," Omar said.
What Omar's public advocacy consistently omits is the financial mess surrounding her own household's cannabis ties. The National Legal and Policy Center, a conservative watchdog group, filed a complaint with the Office of Congressional Ethics alleging Omar violated House disclosure rules by failing to report her husband Mynett's business interests, as the Washington Examiner reported. The complaint cites Mynett's involvement in marijuana and wine ventures that collapsed and became the subject of fraud and breach-of-contract lawsuits from investors and business partners.
NLPC counsel Paul Kamenar wrote that Omar "did not list any transactions by her spouse under Schedule B: Transactions for the last three years regarding any of his wine and cannabis businesses." The watchdog urged the Office of Congressional Ethics to open a preliminary inquiry.
Omar has previously faced questions about campaign payments routed to a firm owned by Mynett. "I don't pay my husband, I pay the firm to do work," she said in 2020 when that arrangement drew criticism. The ethics complaint now raises a separate but related concern: whether Omar's financial disclosures accurately reflected the scope and value of Mynett's business dealings.
The Washington Free Beacon reported that the complaint points to specific discrepancies in Omar's 2021 and 2022 financial filings involving Mynett's stake in entities called eStCru and EstVenture LLC. Reported asset values allegedly did not match the businesses' actual investment and income figures. Kamenar stated that "these discrepancies in Omar's disclosure reports deserve to be fully investigated."
Separate scrutiny of Omar's finances has also prompted her to amend earlier financial filings after the numbers drew sharp questions from Republican lawmakers.
The disclosure problems extend beyond the ethics complaint. Omar's 2024 congressional financial filing originally valued Mynett's businesses at between $6 million and $30 million. An amended version later listed the couple's joint assets at only about $18,004 to $95,000, a staggering downward revision, as the New York Post detailed.
Omar's office blamed the error on their accountant. A Washington, D.C., law firm representing Omar stated: "As the busiest of people, it is very common for members and their spouses to rely on learned professionals like accountants... While the error is of course unfortunate, there is nothing untoward and nothing illegal has occurred."
Kamenar was not satisfied. "Her tax returns should be examined as well as a full audit conducted," he said. House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer went further, saying Omar could face felony charges if she is found to have lied on the disclosures.
Omar has responded sharply to reporters who have pressed her on the gap between the original and amended filings.
The financial disclosure questions sit alongside other ongoing controversies. Republican Rep. Randy Fine has moved to expel Omar from Congress over fraud allegations, and Minnesota GOP lawmakers have demanded records from Omar in connection with the Feeding Our Future fraud probe.
That subpoena fight has itself become a partisan flashpoint. Minnesota Republicans have escalated the dispute to Congress after accusing Democrats of shielding Omar from legitimate oversight.
None of this context appeared in Omar's TMZ remarks. She presented herself as a principled advocate for drug-policy reform, decrying the "billions of dollars" spent incarcerating people over marijuana. The argument has broad appeal across party lines. But when the person making it co-chairs the Congressional Cannabis Caucus while her own household's cannabis ventures are mired in lawsuits, ethics complaints, and wildly inconsistent financial filings, the pitch deserves more scrutiny than a TMZ sidewalk interview can provide.
Omar's claim that "a lot of people" in Congress smoke cannabis is unverifiable and, in the end, beside the point. Plenty of Americans support legalization without any personal stake in the industry. Omar cannot say the same. Her husband's marijuana business collapsed. Investors allege fraud. Her own financial disclosures have been amended, challenged, and referred for ethics review.
Advocating for a policy that would directly benefit your family's financial interests is not illegal. But doing so while allegedly failing to disclose those interests, and then deflecting every inquiry with blame aimed at accountants and reporters, is not the transparency voters deserve from any member of Congress.
When a lawmaker tells the country that marijuana incarceration wastes billions, voters have a right to ask: whose bottom line benefits if that changes?
