Monday, October 12, 2026
Border czar Tom Homan has confirmed that federal agents executed a search warrant at the Washington, D.C.-area home of Rep. Ilhan Omar — the pre-dawn operation first reported Monday morning — and made clear the criminal investigation behind it is very much active.
Speaking on Fox News, Homan confirmed the warrant was executed at the Minnesota congresswoman's home but declined to discuss what agents were looking for or what the investigation has found so far, deferring the details to Attorney General Todd Blanche. The Department of Justice has said Homeland Security Investigations executed a judicially authorized warrant secured by the DOJ as part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation. No charges have been announced, and the department has not publicly disclosed the evidence behind the warrant.
How We Got Here: The Pre-Dawn Search
Federal agents searched Omar's D.C.-area home early Monday — reportedly around 6 a.m. — under the judicially authorized warrant. Fox News Digital, citing sources familiar with the matter, has linked the search to a criminal fraud investigation into Omar's immigration paperwork, documents reportedly filled out by her late father when she was a child. Omar has previously denied allegations of immigration or marriage fraud.
The search did not come out of nowhere. Last month, Homan acknowledged publicly that HSI was conducting a criminal investigation involving the congresswoman. "I know things are going on, but I can't give specifics of what's happening," he said at the time, adding that elected officials are subject to the same immigration laws as everyone else.
What Happens Next
Omar, 44, represents Minnesota's 5th Congressional District, including Minneapolis, and was first elected to the House in 2018 as part of the progressive "Squad." A search warrant does not establish guilt, and investigators have yet to publicly detail their findings. With Homan now pointing all questions to the Attorney General, the next move belongs to the Justice Department — and every indication is that this investigation is only getting started.
No public official should be above the law. Americans deserve transparency, evidence, and a fair process as this investigation unfolds.
Wednesday, October 14, 2026
The federal judge on criminal duty in Washington during the week of the search of Rep. Ilhan Omar's home is a registered Democrat who has donated to Hillary Clinton, according to public records and statements from legal analyst Jonathan Turley.
Magistrate Judge Matthew J. Sharbaugh, the federal judge on criminal duty in Washington, D.C., during the week of the search of Rep. Ilhan Omar's home, is a registered Democrat who has donated to Hillary Clinton, according to public records and statements from legal analyst Jonathan Turley.
Turley noted that the warrant was reportedly approved by Sharbaugh, describing him as "a registered Democrat and a Democratic appointee" as well as "a Hillary Clinton donor, who was sworn in by Judge James Boasberg."
"A registered Democrat and a Democratic appointee... a Hillary Clinton donor, who was sworn in by Judge James Boasberg." — Jonathan Turley
Court schedules show Sharbaugh was the magistrate assigned to criminal duty from October 3 through October 16, 2026, covering the date Homeland Security Investigations executed a judicially authorized search warrant at Omar's D.C. residence. Voter records list him as affiliated with the Democratic Party, and campaign finance filings document contributions to Hillary for America and the Hillary Victory Fund.
The filings put numbers on it. Federal Election Commission records show Sharbaugh, then an attorney at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, gave $250 to Hillary for America on October 23, 2015, followed by contributions of $200, $42 and $56 to the Hillary Victory Fund during the 2016 cycle. Sharbaugh took the bench on October 28, 2024, sworn in by Chief Judge James E. Boasberg to an eight-year term. He was picked for the seat by the Democrat-controlled D.C. federal court at the end of the Biden administration. The former Morgan Lewis partner had twice clerked for Judge Robert L. Wilkins, an Obama appointee.
The Department of Justice confirmed that a court-authorized search warrant was executed as part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation. Search warrants are sealed, so the attribution to Sharbaugh rests on the duty roster and public reporting rather than a released court document. Magistrate judges are selected by the district court rather than appointed by the president.
That is why the sign-off carries weight beyond Omar's complaints. As Article III Project founder Mike Davis put it, judges do not authorize home raids lightly — a search warrant for a home means a federal judge found probable cause that evidence of a crime would be found inside it. Davis also flagged the venue: the D.C. District Court has long been stacked with Obama- and Biden-appointed judges who have been among the most aggressive in anti-Trump rulings, which makes a home-search warrant signed there no small feat.
Omar has called the search an attempt to target political enemies. The investigation has been described by sources as related to immigration paperwork issues.
Thursday, October 15, 2026
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.
Saturday, October 17, 2026
Before federal agents ever knocked on Rep. Ilhan Omar's door, they went through her garbage. Multiple sources told NewsNation that agents secretly collected discarded trash in hopes of obtaining DNA from the Minnesota congresswoman and members of her family — quiet evidence-gathering that came before Monday's raid on her Washington, D.C., home.
The DNA was important to the investigation, the sources said, and it became part of a search-warrant application covering more than a dozen locations in addition to her home. The case involves additional family members, they said, and it is heading to a grand jury.
DNA is one of the strongest tools investigators can bring into a courtroom, because it can prove or disprove biological relationships — siblings, parent and child — with a certainty paper records cannot. In an investigation focused on a family's immigration paperwork and history, that proof can be decisive. Former federal prosecutor Shan Wu and former FBI special agent Tracy Walder both made the point on NewsNation: DNA is often the best evidence of relatedness for court, and the fact that agents pulled trash first can indicate they still lacked enough for a compulsory DNA sample at that stage. Wu added that the DNA angle itself is unusual — "If we're looking at DNA, it's like a whodunnit: 'Were they there?'"
The technique, known as dumpster diving, is standard and legal. Once trash is left out for collection, the Supreme Court has ruled — in California v. Greenwood, in 1988 — that people generally no longer have a reasonable expectation of privacy in it, so agents can take it without a warrant. Investigators use it when they do not yet have enough probable cause for a search of a house or a person, or when serving a warrant or subpoena would alert the target and risk evidence being destroyed or people fleeing. A trash pull before the raid fits that pattern exactly: build the probable cause quietly, then move in the open.
And the target is bigger than the story the public knows. The sources said the case is broader than the familiar immigration allegations against Omar, including the long-running claim that she married her brother to help him gain citizenship; reporting around the investigation has also pointed to a possible changed-birthdate angle and to claims that the inquiry is driven by an effort to revoke her citizenship and deport her. The case is being run out of the Minneapolis HSI office, and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has confirmed that agents executed multiple search warrants the day Omar's home was searched, calling the investigation a "strong case" whose evidence is expected to go before a grand jury.
The raid itself is not in dispute. HSI agents searched Omar's Washington home on Monday, October 12, seized her personal cellphone, and prosecutors have issued more than a dozen grand jury subpoenas, including to relatives; The New York Times reported that her sister's phone was seized before the search of the lawmaker's home. A Biden-era Justice Department investigation into Omar was previously opened and closed. The dumpster-diving detail, for now, rests on NewsNation's sources. Omar has not been charged, and she calls the investigation political: "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. I will not be silenced."
What comes next may stay hidden for a while. Sources told NewsNation the indictments being prepared could be "stunning in nature and far beyond anything the public has understood the case to be about," with any charges likely to arrive after the November 3 election and the search-warrant returns sealed while the grand jury works. A decade of allegations against Omar is now being tested the way investigators test everything else — against physical evidence, including, reportedly, what she threw away.
Saturday, October 17, 2026
The search of Rep. Ilhan Omar's Washington home was not a lone raid. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has confirmed that federal agents executed multiple search warrants on the same day — and he is describing the investigation behind them, in his own words, as a "strong case."
Speaking in a podcast interview reported by CBS News, Mullin said a judge signed off on the warrants and that investigators expect to present their evidence to a grand jury. The probe, run by Homeland Security Investigations alongside the Justice Department, centers on suspected fraud in the immigration paperwork Omar's family submitted decades ago. And Mullin raised the stakes further: organized immigration fraud, he said, could be charged under RICO — the federal racketeering statute built to dismantle organized crime.
The operation became public on Monday, October 12, when agents searched Omar's Washington, D.C., home under a judicially authorized warrant. According to the Associated Press, investigators seized her personal cellphone and have issued more than a dozen grand jury subpoenas, including to some of her relatives — the machinery of a case being built for presentation, not a file being closed.
Mullin has been signaling this for weeks. At the Republican midterm convention in Dallas last month, he told podcaster Benny Johnson, "Something's going to happen," and laid out the theory of the case: "If we actually move a case forward, it's not a political case. It's actually a case because they did things wrong. If you decided to break the law or lie on the information that you gave to the United States to be able to come into the United States, there's no expiration to that." Vice President JD Vance said in March that the administration believes Omar committed immigration fraud, and border czar Tom Homan has called the matter a criminal review, adding that no one is above the law.
Omar has not been charged with anything, and she is fighting back. "For ten years, Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns," she said. "This is just the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation. I will not be silenced." Her attorneys have demanded the return of the property seized in the search, accused the Justice Department of violating its own longstanding policy against overt investigative steps that could influence an election — the search came about three weeks before the midterms, in which Omar is on the ballot — and questioned whether agents followed all of the magistrate judge's instructions. They also demanded the department preserve any audio and video recorded during the search.
The warrants are not the only front. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro has said "there are several investigations going on" involving Omar, and that her office is separately examining the congresswoman's financial disclosures. President Trump, who days before the search told a Tennessee rally crowd that Vance "and our people" were investigating her, said afterward that he had "nothing to do with it" and that the matter is "really up to the DOJ."
What happens next sits with the grand jury Mullin described. A judge has already found enough to sign multiple warrants. More than a dozen subpoenas are out. And the cabinet secretary running the department behind the case is now saying the word RICO out loud. No indictment has been announced — but by Mullin's own account, one is being prepared.
Saturday, October 17, 2026
Federal agents seized the phone of Ilhan Omar's older sister, Sahra Noor, earlier this year — and family text messages taken from that phone helped convince a judge to sign off on the raid of the congresswoman's Washington home.
The New York Times reports the criminal investigation into Omar's immigration history advanced after investigators reviewed the family texts from the seized phone — before agents ever knocked on her door. The case is now being built before a federal grand jury in Minnesota, aimed at proving she conspired to commit immigration fraud.
The grand jury's net is wide. Roughly a dozen subpoenas went out starting Friday, including to Noor and at least one other family member — Omar herself was not subpoenaed. Agents have also sought to speak with her sister directly, and Reuters reported Friday that a sister of the congresswoman voluntarily spoke with federal agents, though it did not say which one or what was discussed.
At the center of the case is paperwork from decades ago: investigators are examining whether Omar's late father, Nur Omar Mohamed, provided false information on immigration forms — including about his military service and about his daughter's age. Omar derived her citizenship as a minor through her father's naturalization in 2000, and earlier records searches by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services reportedly found no record of that naturalization — though a missing record alone does not prove fraud, and Somali archives from the era are incomplete.
The search itself came at dawn on Monday, October 12, when Homeland Security Investigations agents executed the warrant at Omar's Washington home around 6:00 a.m. and seized her phone, passport and computers, according to the Wall Street Journal. A magistrate judge limited how investigators could access her congressional records before approving the warrant, under the Constitution's Speech or Debate protections.
Noor, who lives in Nairobi and is touring the United States with her memoir “Salt in the Snow: A Somali Immigrant Story,” has been pulled into the fallout: her scheduled Thursday night appearance at the University of Minnesota Rochester was cancelled for what the bookstore called a “family emergency.” Omar, meanwhile, has not been seen in public since Monday's raid.
Omar has not been charged and denies wrongdoing. She has called the search an “outrageous abuse of power” and “an unprecedented escalation in the weaponization of federal law enforcement to target political enemies,” vowing: “I will not be silenced.” Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has called it a “strong case” built on multiple judge-signed warrants. What happens next now sits with the Minnesota grand jury — and with whatever those family text messages actually say.
Tuesday, October 20, 2026
Two judges — including one staunch Democrat — have signed off on evidence requests from the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security in the federal probe of Rep. Ilhan Omar, according to the post. The post states the sign-off shows the case is substantial — not a partisan invention.
The claim lands after a week in which courts were already central to the case. On October 12, Homeland Security Investigations agents searched Omar's Washington home under a search warrant the Justice Department confirmed was judicially authorized, part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation. Reuters reported that the magistrate judge who approved the search ordered screening procedures to protect her legislative records, and that prosecutors have issued over a dozen subpoenas, including to family members. D.C. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro made the post's point for it, telling Fox News: "That judge would not have signed that warrant unless there was probable cause."
The probe reportedly reaches from her childhood immigration paperwork to a decade-old allegation. On Monday, the New York Post reported investigators have obtained DNA evidence to test the claim that her 2009 marriage to Ahmed Nur Said Elmi was immigration fraud — that Elmi, a British citizen, is her brother and the marriage was arranged to win him benefits. The Post's sources said the evidence gives prosecutors a solid basis to take a conspiracy case to a grand jury. The reporting rests on the newspaper's sources; Omar has not been charged with any crime.
Rep. Ilhan Omar at a Minneapolis news conference on January 28, 2026.
The allegation first surfaced in 2016 on a Somali community forum, as Omar ran for the Minnesota legislature; conservative outlets and President Trump then amplified it. Her marital history is a matter of record: a faith marriage to Ahmed Hirsi, father of her children, never legally finalized; a legal marriage to Elmi in 2009, dissolved in 2017; Hirsi again in 2018, divorced in 2019; and Tim Mynett in 2020. The claim was examined before: a former immigration official told The Washington Post it was investigated in the first Trump administration and yielded insufficient evidence.
"The case is substantial enough that even liberal judges will not stop it."
Omar has denied the allegation from the first day it appeared. "Insinuations that Ahmed Nur Said Elmi is my brother are absurd and offensive," she said in 2016. After this month's search, her office called it "an outrageous abuse of power and an unprecedented escalation in the weaponization of federal law enforcement to target political enemies," insisting that "the Congresswoman has done nothing wrong," while Omar herself vowed, "I will not be silenced." Her lawyers say there is no legitimate basis for suggesting she violated any law on her citizenship status.
Rep. Ilhan Omar speaking at a Minneapolis rally in July 2026.
Administration officials answer: the process is the point. DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin confirmed the criminal investigation in September, border czar Tom Homan calls it an ongoing criminal investigation, and DHS says no one, including members of Congress, is above the law. That is the ground the post stands on: evidence requests are not granted on politics — judges must be persuaded, and on the post's telling they have been, across the political divide. The case, the post says, is substantial enough that even liberal judges will not stop it.
Thursday, October 22, 2026
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."
Thursday, October 22, 2026
A Justice Department court filing in Washington has put a different name at the top of the federal case involving Rep. Ilhan Omar. The government's motion, filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, identifies the subject of a sealed search warrant as "Congresswoman Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, a/k/a Ilhan Abdullahi Omar" — placing the surname of her former husband first and the name the Minnesota Democrat is known by second, as an alias.
The filing came as prosecutors asked Chief Judge James Boasberg for more time to respond to requests to unseal the warrant records. The government told the court the search warrant has not yet been "fully executed," proposed updating the court within 30 days after execution is completed, and alternatively asked to answer all three unsealing applications by November 9 — a date that falls after the November 3 midterm elections. Neither timeline the government proposed would release the documents before Election Day.
The warrant at the center of the fight was carried out on October 12, when Homeland Security Investigations agents searched Omar's Washington-area residence before dawn under a warrant secured by the Justice Department. A department spokesperson confirmed at the time that the action was part of an ongoing federal investigation. Fox News Digital, citing a source familiar with the matter, reported that the inquiry involves immigration paperwork completed by Omar's late father when she was a child; other reporting says investigators are examining whether an inaccurate birth date allowed Omar to derive American citizenship through her father when he was naturalized in 2000. Omar, who was born in Somalia, arrived in the United States as a refugee in 1995 and became a citizen in 2000.
The name in the filing drew immediate attention because "Elmi" is the surname of Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, the man Omar legally married in 2009 and divorced in 2017. Critics have alleged for years that he is her brother and that the marriage was a vehicle for immigration fraud — an allegation Omar has repeatedly denied. The filing itself does not say the two are siblings, does not explain why prosecutors used the Elmi name, and contains no finding of fraud; "a/k/a" is the standard legal shorthand for "also known as," and Omar has previously acknowledged using a married name from that marriage. Some commentators nonetheless argued the wording suggests the government believes she is in the country under a false identity — an interpretation the document does not state.
The unsealing requests were filed on October 15 by fourteen news organizations, including the Associated Press, Reuters, The Washington Post and CNN, with The New York Times Company and Judicial Watch filing separate applications. The news organizations argued that the public has a constitutional interest in understanding why federal agents searched the home of a sitting member of Congress, and asked for the warrant, its supporting affidavits, the sealing orders and the inventory of anything seized.
Omar has denied wrongdoing and described the search as political targeting and a weaponization of federal law enforcement. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Whip Katherine Clark and Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar issued a joint statement on the day of the search calling it deeply disturbing. Omar, who is seeking re-election on November 3, has not been charged with any crime, and the specific allegations investigators are pursuing have not been publicly disclosed.
Thursday, October 22, 2026
As reported on Instagram
Rep. Ilhan Omar says she can no longer live in her Washington, D.C., home following the federal search of the residence earlier this month, saying the address is now public and that the death threats she receives make it unsafe for her and her children. "Obviously, I can't continue to live there," the Minnesota Democrat told MS NOW's Chris Hayes on Wednesday, in her first interview since the search. "Because our address has been public and with the death threats that I deal with, it's no longer going to be feasible to be in that house and have my kids visiting off and on, having people track them."
Omar recounted the search, which took place on Oct. 12, saying she was awakened at about 6 a.m. by federal agents pounding on her front door, with agents surrounding the home. She was there with her husband, Tim Mynett, and her 20-year-old son. Omar estimated that between 15 and 25 Homeland Security Investigations agents took part. After she asked for a warrant, the agents handed one over — it was specifically for electronics, she said — and then spent four to five hours going room by room. They left with 17 items, including her phone, a phone belonging to her youngest daughter, her husband's notebooks, an antique camera that had been gifted to him, and a Somali-language book for children. Omar also said the agents wanted her to waive her immunity as a member of Congress.
The Justice Department has said only that agents "executed a judicially authorized search warrant" as part of an "ongoing federal criminal investigation," and it has not said what crime Omar is accused of. Reporting by Reuters and other outlets says investigators are examining whether false statements were made about her age by her late father in the paperwork filed when she obtained U.S. citizenship in 2000, after emigrating from Somalia with her family. A source told NBC News that she could face charges of making false statements in immigration paperwork and conspiracy, but no charges have been announced, and more than a dozen subpoenas have also been issued to members of her family. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro has said a judge signed the warrant and would not have done so without probable cause.
Omar has denied wrongdoing and condemned the search. "I'm confident in my truth. I'm confident in the fact that I didn't do anything wrong," she told Hayes. Hours after the search, she posted on X: "I'm ok. Make no mistake: 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. I will not be silenced." Her office called the search "an outrageous abuse of power." She also questioned why agents came at 6 a.m. when, she said, the warrant allowed them to execute it at any time between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., and she alleged that the agents tipped off Fox News, which she said was the first outlet on site.
Omar also rejected President Donald Trump's insistence that he had "nothing to do" with the investigation. "I mean, he's got everything to do with it," she said. "You know, this goes back to 2019 when he was screaming about the fact that, you know, I need to be sent back, I need to be deported." Trump has been a frequent critic of Omar since his first term, has accused her of fraud and has called for her deportation.
Omar also keeps a home in Minneapolis, in the district she represents, and she is seeking re-election in the Nov. 3 midterm elections. House Democratic leaders — Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Whip Katherine Clark and Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar — released a statement in her support after the search, saying Trump and far-right figures have "relentlessly targeted Congresswoman Omar with vile personal attacks and baseless accusations," and promising "full accountability" over the actions of the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department.
Thursday, October 22, 2026
Rep. Ilhan Omar says the raid on her Washington home has cost her the home: with her address now public and death threats coming in, she told MS NOW she must move her family somewhere her children cannot be tracked.
Omar made the remarks to Chris Hayes on Wednesday in her first interview since Homeland Security Investigations agents searched her Washington, D.C., home on October 12. "Obviously, I can't continue to live there," she said. "Because our address has been public and with the death threats that I deal with, it's no longer going to be feasible to be in that house and have my kids visiting off and on, having people track them."
By Omar's account, she had slept only about two and a half hours after returning from a trip before agents woke her at 6 a.m., pounding on the door. A team of HSI agents presented a search warrant — one that, she noted, allowed them to come any time between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. "You don't show up to somebody's house that early in the morning unless you're trying to freak them out," she said. "And you know it obviously did freak all of us out." She said agents asked her to sign away her constitutional protections as a member of Congress; she refused, calling the request "obnoxious." The search then went room by room for four to five hours. Omar conceded the agents "mostly decently conducted themselves" — they even folded some of her clothes back up.
What they left with was 17 items: her phone, an older travel phone, her youngest daughter's first phone, her husband's notebooks — about ten of the 17 items — a vintage camera that was a gift from his uncle, and a children's Somali phrase book. "To walk away with 17 items of, like, 10 that were just notebooks and like old phones was such a bizarre, bizarre thing," she said.
"Obviously, I can't continue to live there. Because our address has been public and with the death threats that I deal with, it's no longer going to be feasible to be in that house." — Rep. Ilhan Omar
The search is part of a federal investigation built on a judicially authorized warrant listing potential immigration fraud, false statements and conspiracy. People familiar with the probe have told CNN that investigators are examining whether Omar or her late father gave false information about her age on her path to citizenship. Omar arrived in the United States in March 1995, aged 12, after fleeing Somalia's civil war and spending four years in a Kenyan refugee camp, and was naturalized in 2000. She has questioned how a 12-year-old could have conspired to mislead officials. In the same interview, asked about the claim that she married her brother, she answered "Not to my knowledge" and called the allegation "insane," saying it began on a Somali blog before spreading among conspiracy theorists in Minneapolis. No charges against her have been announced.
Omar calls the raid political intimidation. "Make no mistake: this is an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement," she wrote on X after the search. "I will not be silenced." To Hayes she added: "I'm confident in my truth. I'm confident in the fact that I didn't do anything wrong." The administration is not backing down. Asked at the White House on Tuesday whether Omar could face deportation over alleged misstatements in her paperwork, President Trump — prefacing that it was his opinion — called her "a sick, very dishonest person who hates our country" and said, "Well, she could be. She could also go to jail." Border czar Tom Homan has made the legal case plainly: "If you lie during the naturalization process, there is a process to denaturalize somebody. We've done it before." For now, the investigation continues — and Omar is house-hunting.
Thursday, October 22, 2026
First posted on Instagram
President Trump carried the fight over Omar's identity to a rally in Sioux City, Iowa, telling the crowd to "please inform our great Speaker, James Michael Johnson" that the Democratic Party had "just conceded her seat." The line drew on the Oct. 21 filing from U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro's office, which named the congresswoman as "Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, a/k/a Ilhan Abdullahi Omar."
"She used a fake name to be sworn in," Trump told the rally. "I assume she must automatically resign from Congress." The crowd took up chants of "Lock her up."
Omar's office rejects the allegation outright. "Ilhan Omar is her real name," a spokesperson said.
Friday, October 23, 2026
President Trump added a new demand on Friday: a gag order. Departing the White House for a campaign rally in Fort Myers, Florida, he was asked why Omar does not have a gag order like the ones judges imposed on him during his own cases. Trump said she should have one. "Her whole life is a total scam as far as I'm concerned," he said.
The comparison reaches back to his own prosecutions. In the New York civil fraud trial, Judge Arthur Engoron barred Trump from attacking court staff and fined him $15,000 across two violations. In the federal election case in Washington, Judge Tanya Chutkan restricted his statements about prosecutors and witnesses. And in the Manhattan hush-money trial, Judge Juan Merchan fined him $10,000 for ten gag-order violations and warned that jail could follow. Trump has argued ever since that those orders muzzled him while his opponents attacked him freely — the double standard he was pointing at on the South Lawn.
Friday's remark moves the fight one step past Thursday's demand in Sioux City that Omar resign over the name in the Justice Department's filing. No charges have been filed against Omar, and prosecutors have not explained why the filing listed her under another name. But the president is no longer only questioning how she got her seat — he is now saying, out loud, that she should be silenced while the investigation runs.
First posted on Instagram
Friday, October 23, 2026 — The fight over Representative Ilhan Omar's identity has moved into legal territory, as constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley warned that "if a candidate were elected on false pretenses or violated federal election law, their congressional seat could potentially be put at risk."
Turley said the immigration side of the investigation is the one to watch, because it is the one that has reached the point of an actual search of Omar's residence. He said the family members now facing subpoenas are very likely related to the immigration side, and raised the question of Omar's stated age — she was recorded as 17, which allowed her to derive citizenship through her father instead of filing a separate naturalization application.
"The immigration laws are very clear," Turley said. "When you're accused of illegally procuring citizenship or naturalization, it is not a defense that, 'I was innocent in all of this.'" He added that the standard of proof for denaturalization is high. The U.S. government's position, he said, "has always been that if you have information there that is untrue, where you would NOT have been made a citizen, then you can be DENATURALIZED."
On the name itself, Fox News Digital, citing two sources familiar with the investigation, reported that Omar's real or birth surname is Elmi. Attorney General Todd Blanche told the Post he did not believe prosecutors "would make up names."
None of this, by itself, establishes that Omar used a fake name or broke the law. The appearance of the name Elmi in a federal filing does not prove identity fraud, and removing a member of Congress requires a legal basis and supporting evidence. Omar has not been charged with any crime, and her office maintains that "Ilhan Omar is her real name."