UNCOOPERATIVE WITNESS: Ilhan Omar Marriage Flummoxes Media Fact-Checkers.

After reviewing the dearth of evidence collected by those suggesting that Elmi was Omar’s brother, Diaz assigned two reporters to come to a conclusion.

“We felt as journalists, if there was smoke, it’s our job to look behind it to see if there’s fire,” Diaz said.

The paper’s biggest impediment to finding the truth was Omar, Diaz added.

“What’s really made it hard is that she’s been unwilling to address any of these questions,” Diaz wrote. “That has fueled the controversy.”

“We’ve asked her these questions, and also asked her to make her father available. We’ve tried to reach Elmi. We’ve tried to reach her sisters. Her family could put this (the question of Elmi’s relationship to Omar) to rest easily. No one will talk to us. I wish we could send a reporter to Mogadishu (Somalia) but we don’t have the bandwidth.”

Diaz currently says there is “circumstantial evidence that begs for some kind of explanation from a member of Congress,” but his team is unable to reach a conclusion either way without more information from Omar. The Free Beacon has also been unable to come to a conclusion.

That’s an awful lot of smoke.