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Omar's campaign told CNN that she will repay the committee and pay the civil penalty.
The Minnesota Campaign Finance Board ruled Thursday that U.S. Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar violated state campaign finance rules and asked her to reimburse her campaign committee for about US$3,500, plus a US$500 civil penalty.
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"I'm glad this process is complete and that the Campaign Finance Board has come to a resolution on this matter," Omar said in a statement.
The democratic representative affirmed that in addition to complying with the Board's findings, she will close the account from the State House race and distribute the funds to organizations that help train first-time candidates to run for office, "so that the next generation of candidates and their teams know how to adequately track and report campaign expenses. I also believe we need to dedicate more resources to our campaign finance agencies."
According to the Minnesota board, the campaign committee "improperly paid" for flight tickets out of state that was not directly connected to her legislative tenure, like a meeting for the People for the American Way's America's Cabinet in New York in 2017.
"While Rep. Omar would not have been asked to participate in America's Cabinet had she not been elected to the Minnesota House, she did not attend this event to assist her in her performance of her duties as a legislator," the board stated.
Since she became a U.S. representative, Omar has come under attack by the United States ruling elite on both sides of the political aisle over her bold progressive stand on controversial topics of U.S. politics ranging from migration, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, foreign interventions, and other social and political policies.
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