Ilhan Omar is the mastermind behind cash-for-ballots scheme, source says

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An undercover video investigation by James O'Keefe's Project Veritas revealed a Minnesota-based source describes Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., as the mastermind behind a cash-for-ballots, voter-fraud scheme.

(Article republished from WND.com)

"Nobody would say that Ilhan Omar isn't part of this," said Omar Jamal, a Somali community insider and the chairman of the Somali Watchdog group. "Unless you're from a different planet, but if you live in this universe, I think everybody knows it."

Jamal claimed a staffer in Omar's office, Ali Isse Gainey, is at the center of a vote-buying scheme.

On Monday, Project Veritas released a video alleging paid workers in Omar's congressional district in Minneapolis are illegally gathering absentee ballots from elderly Somali immigrants.

Members of the Somali community interviewed by Project Veritas charge Omar and the state Democratic Party, the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, are behind the "ballot harvesting."

The investigation features alleged ballot harvester Liban Mohamed in a Snapchat video with piles of ballots on his car dashboard.

Mohamed is the brother of Minneapolis City Council member Jamal Osman.

"Just today we got 300 for Jamal Osman," Mohamed says in the video. "I have 300 ballots in my car right now."

He boasts in his SnapChat video July 1: "Numbers don’t lie. You can see my car is full. All these here are absentee ballots. ... Look, all these are for Jamal Osman.

"Money is the king in this world ... and a campaign is driven by money."

WATCH THE FIRST VIDEO:

Now Project Veritas has released its second installment:

Project Veritas noted state law forbids individuals from working as an agent for more than three ballots.

But Jamal explains that operatives for Omar would go into voting booths with voters, pretending to help them. Instead, the operative does the voting.

Project Veritas recorded a Minneapolis ballot harvester with a hidden camera "describing how the operatives make sure the voters vote correctly by walking into the booth with the voter."

The ballot harvester explained: "They help us at the voting booth. They allow them to help us. They go inside with us and help us, and they actually do that inside there."

Project Veritas reported the ballot harvester said there is no confusion. The operatives doing the voting: "They actually are the ones who vote, people don't usually -- they do the voting."

Osman Ali Dahquane, a taxi driver in Minneapolis who allegedly was involved in local vote buying strategies, said Omar paid for votes.

"We don’t mind illegal," Dahquane said. "If this continues this direction, many people will go to prison, or no one will vote in the city of Minneapolis. It is very, very corrupt. We are in trouble if they come after us. We are in big trouble if they come after us."

O'Keefe said Dahquane "has a clear, blatant disregard for American’s political process."

"He has no fear of his illegal actions -- so much so that he casually mentions having to pay off Al-Shabaab, a.k.a. Al-Qaeda, to open a business back home in Mogadishu," O'Keefe said.

Dahaquane was recorded by a Project Veritas undercover journalist talking about the difficulty of trying to open a business in Mogadishu and the money he had to send to the terrorist group Al-Shabaab as part of the process.

"I sent it from my account. I sent Mogadishu $2,000 last night. Here is the receipt,” Dahaquane said. “I’m requesting a license to be issued at the Ministry of Interior. It’s very expensive. It cost me $2,000. Still, I still have to pay Al-Shabaab to leave me alone--Al-Shabaab, they are demanding $1,000."

Dahquane said that even election judges are being paid.

The statements suggest, according to Jered Ede, the chief legal officer for Project Veritas, that there have been violations of both state and federal laws.

That includes paying or being paid to register to vote and intimidation. Penalties could range to five years in prison.

Jamal warned in the report that the fraud is a clear danger.

"If the American people don't pay attention to what's happening, it is going to soon - the country will collapse,” he said. "The regulations, if you ignore that and you let corruption and fraud become a daily business then tough luck, the country will not exist as they know it.”