Federal authorities have seized Rep. Ilhan Omar’s phone and issued more than a dozen grand jury subpoenas, including to some of her relatives, as part of a criminal investigation into potential fraud in her immigration paperwork, according to a person briefed on the probe.
The subpoenas are connected to a grand jury in Minnesota collecting evidence on the matter. The investigation already led federal agents to search Omar’s Washington, D.C., home on Monday, just weeks before the November midterms, where Omar is on the ballot seeking reelection. Nothing like a little “I will not be silenced” energy from someone whose phone the feds just took.
For more on the Omar immigration fraud investigation, the scope remains officially unclear, though Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has indicated authorities are looking at potential crimes tied to her family’s immigration paperwork.
D.C. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro appeared on Fox News Tuesday and confirmed the investigation is broad. “There are several investigations going on” related to Omar, Pirro said, adding that her office is also looking into issues with Omar’s financial disclosures. She kept it simple on the bottom line: “If there was a crime that was committed, it will be prosecuted.”
Omar, naturally, fired up the victimhood machine at full speed. In a statement on X, she called the home search an “attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement.” She also said, “For 10 years, Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns. This is just the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation.”
Democrats rushed to Omar’s defense, accusing the administration of targeting her for political purposes, three weeks before a midterm election that will decide control of both chambers of Congress. The Justice Department has historically avoided making public investigative moves against candidates within 60 days of an election, so that timing will almost certainly fuel more fireworks on Capitol Hill.
Omar has represented Minnesota’s 5th District, which includes Minneapolis, since first winning election in 2018. She is part of the Squad, the progressive bloc that has made itself a loud force on the left wing of Congress and a repeated target of Trump criticism going back to his first term. She was one of the first two Muslim-American women elected to the House and the first African refugee to serve in Congress.
The investigation is ongoing and no charges have been filed. What happens next depends on what that grand jury in Minnesota turns up, and whether Pirro’s office finds anything worth prosecuting in those financial disclosures. One thing is for sure: the Democrats screaming about political weaponization sound a lot quieter when you remember they spent years cheering on investigations of their own political opponents.
