Rep. Ilhan Omar’s campaign recently dropped tens of thousands of dollars on private security services following her calls to defund the police and support for a campaign to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department, federal filings show.
The Minnesota Democrat’s campaign spent $27,081.14 on “security services” between July and September, almost all of which went to Relative Intel LLC, Federal Election Commission records show. Relative Intel offers protection services, training and consulting.
“Our leadership has spent over 25 years embedded in the private security industry across the United States and abroad,” Relative Intel’s website states. “We offer quality and precise solutions that meet the specific needs of our clients. In addition to site security and executive protection, we offer high value package transport, private intelligence analysis, and a broad range of training.”
Omar’s newest payments are the most her campaign has dished out for such services in any quarter. Before the third quarter, her campaign paid roughly $83,000 to private security firms between May 2019 and July this year, according to a review of federal filings.
The payments also follow Omar’s calls to defund police and her support for a campaign to dismantle and replace the Minneapolis PD. Relative Intel LLC serves the Twin Cities area, including Minneapolis, which has experienced a sharp increase in most crimes over the last year.
Following George Floyd’s death in May 2020, Minneapolis’s violent crime skyrocketed. Last year, the city fell one murder short of hitting its all-time high of 97 homicides in 1997. And while murders have declined this year, many other crimes are trending in the opposite direction, including soaring motor vehicle thefts, larceny/thefts, carjackings, destruction of property and assaults.
Omar, meanwhile, first championed the “defund the police” movement shortly after Floyd’s death.
“The ‘defund the police’ movement, is one of reimagining the current police system to build an entity that does not violate us, while relocating funds to invest in community services,” Omar said just over a week after Floyd’s death. “Let’s be clear, the people who now oppose this, have always opposed calls for systematic change.”
Omar later supported a campaign targeting the Minneapolis PD as rising crime plagued the city. Last year, far-left activists spearheaded an effort to dismantle the city’s police department and replace it with a “Department of Public Safety.” The activists successfully placed the charter amendment on the November ballot.
The effort received a flood of outside support from deep-pocketed liberal donors and activist groups. George Soros’ advocacy nonprofit, the Open Society Policy Center, supplied $500,000 to the campaign, Fox News Digital reported.
Other groups – such as MoveOn.org and the American Civil Liberties Union – also combined to add hundreds of thousands in in-kind contributions, including staffing, access to email lists, and other services that come as non-cash contributions.
Minneapolis voters, however, ultimately rejected the initiative, 56% to 44%.
Omar’s campaign did not respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment on her security payments following her calls to defund the police and dismantle the Minneapolis PD.