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Omar Tried Sneaking In $1 Million Earmark For East African ‘Addiction Center’ – It Got Axed

Updated: CORRUPTION

Republicans yanked a $1 million earmark from a federal spending bill after it was revealed the money was slated for Generation Hope MN, a Somali-led addiction recovery group operating out of the space above a Somali restaurant in Minneapolis. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) announced the move, citing concerns about wasteful spending and the lack of meaningful scrutiny over how earmarked taxpayer dollars are handed out.

Sen. Joni Ernst’s office flagged the earmark earlier this week, warning that what she described as “an East African addiction center full of red flags for fraud” deserved far more scrutiny than it received. Ernst’s team noted that the nonprofit lists the same address on its IRS filings as Sagal Restaurant and Coffee, raising immediate questions about oversight and legitimacy.

The $1 million earmark, critics say, didn’t appear by accident. It was quietly inserted by Rep. Ilhan Omar.

“What I uncovered the other day, in one of our spending bills making its way through Congress, was a $1 million earmark from Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota,” the Senator revealed in an interview with Fox Business.

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“This earmark was supposedly going to a substance abuse clinic, which actually happened to be housed in a restaurant and run by three individuals who share the same residential address, according to their IRS paperwork. Tons of red flags.”

Ernst connected this type of activity to the exploding daycare scams involving the Somali community in the North Star State.

“Now we see other earmarks coming directly from members of Congress, where it seems fraud is being perpetrated as well,” she said. “I raised the issue, and fortunately, the House has now stripped that earmark out of that spending bill. But again, this is how easy money has been flowing to bad actors in Minnesota.”

House Republicans removed the $1,031,000 earmark from the Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) minibus spending package after conservative pushback threatened to derail it.

Ernst later shared on X that the removal of the Omar earmark, which was jointly led by Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Tina Smith (D-MN) in the Senate, was a “squeal win.” She wrote: “Taxpayer dollars should not be funding more fraud in Minnesota.”

The restaurant owner defended the establishment’s collaboration with the “addiction center” during an interview with Fox News, explaining that the building features eight distinct office spaces on the upper floor and asserting that there is nothing inappropriate about the setup. Generation Hope MN, a 501(c)(3) organization founded in 2019, states that its mission focuses on assisting the East African community with services related to substance use recovery, mental health support, and job training.

Omar has faced mounting scrutiny amid a wave of Somali-linked fraud cases reported across Minnesota. While she has not been formally accused of participating in any of the schemes, Omar “has strong relationships with at least two scammers,” raising further questions about her judgment and associations.

Adding to the concerns, photos have circulated showing Omar posing with Abdul Dahir Ibrahim, a Somali immigrant with prior fraud convictions.

Omar has also drawn criticism over reports of her family’s rapidly rising wealth, which critics say ballooned from near financial distress to as much as $30 million in roughly a year — a trajectory that has prompted calls for greater transparency.

With fraud cases proliferating across Minnesota, critics argue that even the appearance of questionable connections warrants closer examination, especially from lawmakers entrusted with overseeing public funds.

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