Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) told TMZ on Wednesday that she believes marijuana use is widespread on Capitol Hill, offering the unverified claim while pushing for federal legalization, and while her own credibility faces mounting questions on entirely separate fronts.
TMZ caught up with Omar in Washington, D.C., and asked about recent changes to federal policy on medical and recreational marijuana research. When pressed on whether any members of Congress were open users, Omar did not hesitate.
The Hill reported that Omar told TMZ directly:
"I think there are a lot of people who smoke cannabis in Congress."
She did not name names. She raised two fingers in a peace sign and walked off.
Omar, who co-chairs the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, framed her advocacy as a matter of criminal justice spending rather than personal habit. She drew a line between supporting legalization and being a user, a distinction that seemed designed to give her colleagues cover.
"I will say, advocacy for legalizing doesn't necessarily mean that you are a user, so everybody can be an advocate to legalizing it because we understand that it is not OK for us to spend the billions of dollars we do now in incarcerating people for smoking a joint."
That framing, billions spent locking people up over joints, is a familiar progressive talking point. Omar offered no figures to back it up. She did, however, credit President Trump for shifting the GOP's approach on drug policy and for opening discussions with Republican allies on the issue.
"I think any step forward is a good step, but we need to go farther than where we are yet. We need to continue building the coalition, we need to continue to have people speak to the president. He has the power, Congress has the power, and it's time for us to come together and get this done."
Omar's comments came against the backdrop of significant executive action. Last month, President Trump signed an executive order loosening federal research restrictions on psychedelic drugs as medicine to treat mental conditions such as depression and substance abuse disorder. The order also directed the Food and Drug Administration to fast-track reviews leading to the approval of psychedelic medicines.
Days later, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche ordered state-licensed medical marijuana to be reclassified as less dangerous, a move Blanche described as fulfilling the president's campaign promise to expand Americans' access to medical treatment options.
Blanche posted his announcement on the social platform X, stating:
"These actions will enable more targeted, rigorous research into marijuana's safety and efficacy, expanding patients' access to treatments and empowering doctors to make better-informed healthcare decisions."
The order also lowers regulation on medical marijuana and provides tax breaks to licensed medical marijuana operators. Several GOP lawmakers, including Reps. Morgan Luttrell of Texas and Jack Bergman of Michigan, have made the case for psychedelics to be accessible for veterans as a treatment option, a cause that carries real weight with the party's base.
The shift represents a notable break from decades of federal drug enforcement dating to the Nixon administration. And it is worth noting: the policy changes Omar praised came not from her party's leadership but from a Republican White House.
Omar's casual remarks about congressional marijuana use might have been a forgettable hallway moment, the kind of thing TMZ thrives on. But they land differently when the congresswoman making them faces serious, unresolved questions about her own transparency.
The Washington Free Beacon reported that Omar's latest financial disclosure placed her household net worth in a range of at least $6 million to $30 million at the end of 2024, an increase of at least 3,500 percent from the prior year, when her husband Tim Mynett's two companies were reportedly worth no more than $51,000 combined. The reported wealth surge was attributed primarily to Mynett's ownership stakes in eStCru LLC and Rose Lake Capital.
That disclosure raised eyebrows in part because Omar had previously dismissed claims about her wealth. "Maybe try checking my public financial statements and you will see I barely have thousands let alone millions," she wrote on X, calling such claims "categorically false."
The story got stranger. The New York Post reported that Omar's 2024 financial disclosure was later amended to show the couple had less than $100,000 in combined assets, a staggering reversal from the original filing. Omar's office told the Wall Street Journal the valuations were made in error and blamed their accountant. House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer said Omar could face felony charges if she is found to have lied on the disclosures. Paul Kamenar, counsel for the National Legal and Policy Center, said Omar's tax returns should be examined and a full audit conducted.
Omar's office attributed the discrepancy to a professional mistake. A letter from a Washington, D.C., law firm representing Omar stated: "As the busiest of people, it is very common for members and their spouses to rely on learned professionals like accountants... While the error is of course unfortunate, there is nothing untoward and nothing illegal has occurred."
Whether that explanation holds up remains to be seen. But the gap between a $30 million disclosure and a sub-$100,000 amendment is not the kind of rounding error that inspires public confidence.
The financial disclosure controversy is not the only cloud following Omar. Her name has surfaced repeatedly in connection with the massive Feeding Our Future fraud case in her home state of Minnesota, where court exhibits mentioned her multiple times during the $250 million COVID meal fraud trial.
The alleged mastermind of that scheme told investigators that Omar had knowledge of the fraud, a claim that has drawn sustained scrutiny from state lawmakers and federal watchdogs alike.
Minnesota legislators attempted to compel Omar's testimony before a state fraud committee, but Democrats blocked the subpoena effort, and the bid ultimately fell short by a single vote. Omar has not testified.
That pattern, allegations surface, scrutiny builds, and then the process stalls, has repeated itself. The congresswoman has managed to avoid formal accountability at each turn, aided by partisan procedural maneuvering in the Minnesota legislature.
Omar's claim that many of her colleagues smoke marijuana is unverifiable and, frankly, beside the point. TMZ asked a breezy question and got a breezy answer. What matters more is the broader picture: a sitting member of Congress who faces open questions about wildly inconsistent financial disclosures, who has been linked by name to one of the largest pandemic fraud cases in American history, and who has avoided testimony under oath, all while casually opining about who in the Capitol might be lighting up.
The Trump administration's moves on marijuana and psychedelic research represent a serious policy shift grounded in veterans' health needs and a rethinking of federal enforcement priorities. Omar praised those moves, and fair enough, credit where it is due. But her call for Congress and the president to "come together and get this done" rings hollow when her own house is in such visible disorder.
Several open questions remain. Omar did not identify any colleagues who use marijuana. She offered no evidence for the "billions" she says the government spends incarcerating people for marijuana. And the financial disclosure saga, original filing, dramatic amendment, blame shifted to an accountant, has not been resolved by any independent review.
Voters in Minnesota's Fifth District and taxpayers across the country deserve answers to the questions that actually matter. Whether members of Congress smoke marijuana is gossip. Whether a member of Congress filed accurate financial disclosures, and what she knew about a quarter-billion-dollar fraud, is accountability.
Omar flashed a peace sign and walked away from TMZ's cameras. Walking away from the harder questions has not been quite so easy.
