Before federal agents searched Rep. Ilhan Omar's Washington home on Monday, prosecutors had to fight a days-long battle they have not talked about — with the judge. CNN reported Wednesday that U.S. Magistrate Judge Matthew Sharbaugh of the D.C. District Court limited how the Justice Department could access Omar's documents before he would approve the warrant, because of her role as a member of Congress and the constitutional protections that come with it. The back-and-forth had not been previously reported.
The Justice Department had argued for broad access to the records Omar kept at her home and said there was little need to sequester what agents seized. Sharbaugh told prosecutors that was not possible under the law. Before signing off, he required the department to set up a screening process so Omar's legislative work — protected under the Constitution's Speech or Debate Clause, which D.C. courts have read expansively — is filtered out before investigators can see it. That condition now sits on top of everything taken in Monday's search.
"This is an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement. For ten years, Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns. This is just the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation."
The search grew out of an immigration fraud probe examining alleged false statements on government documents — including, the administration believes, a passport in recent years — and whether Omar or her late father misstated her age when she became a citizen in 2000, claiming she was a minor when she was of adult age. One source told CNN the government could try to expand the case into a wider conspiracy involving falsification over years by a larger group. At least a dozen subpoenas went out beginning last Friday, most of them to Omar's relatives. The case, reopened last year, is being led by prosecutors in the deputy attorney general's office and the U.S. attorney's office in Minneapolis; a separate financial and campaign-finance investigation continues in Washington, where U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said Tuesday of Omar's financial disclosures: "That is the subject of an investigation as well. We're looking at the facts. Based upon the facts we will follow them wherever they take us."
Omar has denied any wrongdoing and has not been charged. Border czar Tom Homan, who has spoken repeatedly about the investigation, put the administration's position plainly last month: "If someone committed immigration violation, someone committed marriage fraud or anything like that, regardless if they're a congressman or not, no one's above the law." The screening process Sharbaugh imposed could substantially slow any case built on Omar's own records — and the search itself landed less than a month before Election Day, with Omar running for re-election in Minnesota, where voting is already under way.
Never miss a story.
Join our Telegram channel and get every article link the second it’s published.
Join Telegram Channel