Who's Afraid of Ilhan Omar?

Congresswoman's refusal to answer questions about a big book advance that may violate House rules is just the latest media stonewall

Rep Ilhan Omar's (D., Minn.) new memoir, This Is What America Looks Like: My Journey From Refugee to Congresswoman is out next week. Among the questions it leaves unanswered is whether Omar complied with House rules governing the big advance she reportedly received on the book.

House rules prohibit "the receipt of any advance payment on copyright royalties" unless the contract has been approved by the House Ethics Committee, as the Washington Free Beaconreported in December. At the time, neither Omar nor her publisher responded to repeated requests for comment about when, exactly, Omar signed her book contract and received the advance, which Forbes put at between $100,000 and $250,000.

Omar may have received the royalty payment before she was sworn in on Jan. 3, 2019, but her2018 financial disclosure listed no book advance. We would like to see her 2019 disclosure, but Omar has filed for a 90-day extension.

Ninety days takes Omar just past the contested Democratic-Farmer-Labor primary that she faces back home in Minnesota this August—by two days, to be exact. We'll have to check back then.

More