President Donald Trump, responding to a question from a reporter, suggested he had heard stories that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) married her own brother in an attempt to skirt immigration laws.

The media responded by going into full meltdown mode. They came to Omar’s defense and suggested the president had just dabbled in more wild conspiracy theories. Not as wild as the Russian collusion hoax — but wild nonetheless.

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Before Trump boarded Air Force One on Wednesday to attend a rally in North Carolina, a reporter asked him something regarding Omar and the allegations involving her brother.

Related: Omar Will Not Apologize for Her Anti-Semitic Remarks

“There’s a lot of talk about the fact that she was married to her brother,” Trump responded. “I know nothing about it …  I’m sure that somebody would be looking at that.”

Perhaps realizing what the media’s reaction would be, Trump was sure to note that the reporter had asked him about it specifically — not that he brought it up out of the blue.

The mainstream media’s response was rather predictable: They went to bat for Omar with their collective outrage.

CNN reporter Jim Acosta stepped up to the plate and claimed the accusations were off base because, well … because Omar said they were.

Journalism!

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Acosta’s colleague, Chris Cillizza, practically had a coronary.

Now This, whose claim to fame is a Twitter feed featuring video of the “squad” babbling incoherently about things and then captioning that, “ZOMG! They’re so smart!” also rushed to her defense, claiming, “There is no basis to this wild accusation.”

But is there?

Recent report. The reason the mainstream media are quick to dismiss this comment by President Trump is because they’ve been successful at burying the story on behalf of Omar. Now they must feign surprise at its existence.

Less than one month ago, however, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, a liberal-leaning newspaper, reported on just-released documents that raise questions as to whether Omar married her own brother as a means to “skirt immigration laws.”

Here is the alarming opening paragraph (take notes, Now This —here’s the “basis”): “New investigative documents released by a state agency have given fresh life to lingering questions about the marital history of Rep. Ilhan Omar and whether she once married a man — possibly her own brother — to skirt immigration laws.”

The Tribune noted that accusations along these lines dated back to 2016 when “the conservative Power Line blog suggest[ed] that Elmi is her brother and they married for unspecified immigration benefits.”

Three years ago this came up — and not one reporter thought it might be good to look into, if nothing more than to debunk the story?

As for Acosta’s claims that, “Well, if Omar says it’s not true, it’s not true,” here is a video of her refusing to answer questions about the allegations pertaining to her brother.

The absolute best part about this: The media are now forced to actually cover a story they’ve ignored for three years.

That is some impressive 4-D chess on Trump’s part.

This piece originally appeared in The Political Insider and is used by permission.

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