Nine days after federal agents searched her home, Ilhan Omar sat down for her first interview — and her answer to the allegation that has followed her for years came down to three words.
Ilhan Omar says "not to my knowledge" when asked if she married her brother — while brand-new federal court filings officially list her primary name as Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, a/k/a Ilhan Abdullahi Omar, matching the family name of the man at the center of the long-standing allegation.
Omar broke her silence on Wednesday night in an interview with Chris Hayes on MS NOW, her first since Homeland Security Investigations agents executed a judicial warrant at her Washington, D.C. home on Monday, October 12. Hayes pressed her on whether there was any "weird kernel of truth" to the claim that her former husband was her brother. Her answer: "Not to my knowledge." She called the allegations "insane" and traced them to a Somali-language blog.
The raid she was answering for was extensive: some 15 to 25 agents spent four to five hours inside her home and seized 17 items, including phones, notebooks, a vintage camera and a Somali book. The investigation, run by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Minnesota, centers on alleged immigration fraud involving birth-date paperwork filed by her late father. A separate federal probe in Washington is examining her and her husband Tim Mynett's finances, and more than a dozen grand jury subpoenas have been issued across the inquiries. Omar has not been charged with any crime and denies wrongdoing.
On her finances, she pushed back on reports that had put her net worth near $30 million: after liabilities, she said, the figure is closer to $20,000. She described living "paycheck to paycheck," driving a 2016 Toyota Camry and renting in both Washington and Minneapolis.
"Not to my knowledge."
The interview aired the same day a new federal court filing in Washington, in the sealed matter over the search warrant, named the subject of the investigation as "Congresswoman Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, a/k/a Ilhan Abdullahi Omar." The Justice Department has asked to delay unsealing the warrant materials, with a response due by November 9.
The reactions split along familiar lines. President Trump said of Omar: "She could go to jail. They keep talking about deportation." Border czar Tom Homan has described the denaturalization process on Fox News, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin has called the case "strong," and former President Barack Obama called the investigation "appalling."
For now, the case sits where the filings left it — a sealed warrant, a name on a court document, and a congresswoman who, asked directly whether there is any truth to the allegation at the center of it, answered: "Not to my knowledge."