Federal agents seem to search Rep. Ilhan Omar’s D.C.-area home in ongoing criminal probe

Federal agents seem to have searched the Washington, D.C.-area home of Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, on Monday morning, October 12, as part of an ongoing criminal investigation. A Justice Department spokesperson confirmed a search in a statement quoted by ABC News: “Today in the Washington, D.C. area, Homeland Security Investigations executed a judicially authorized search warrant secured by the Department of Justice.” The spokesperson added, according to ABC News and NBC News: “This enforcement action is part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation.” NBC News notes that the statement did not specify that the warrant related to Omar; NBC attributes the location to two people familiar with the investigation, and ABC News reports that Omar’s residence faced the search, citing the DOJ spokesperson.

Fox News broke the story at 7:37 a.m. Eastern, citing a source familiar with the operation, the earliest report this desk found; the BBC and NBC News credit Fox with the first report, and CNBC relays the Fox account. Fox News reported that the search started around 6 a.m. with Homeland Security Investigations and the Department of Homeland Security leading the operation, and that multiple agents in HSI jackets stood outside the home in the early hours. A BBC crew saw several agents at the home, some carrying boxes to a van, the BBC reports. NBC News says a Homeland Security Investigations team of about 15 to 20 agents left the house late in the morning. The BBC notes that Congress has gone out of session, and both the BBC and ABC News say it remains unclear whether Omar stayed at the home during the search.

Accounts of the investigation’s focus come from unnamed sources. Two sources close to the investigation told Fox News that the search stems from a criminal fraud investigation into Omar’s immigration paperwork, which her late father filled out during her childhood; CNBC and the BBC relay that Fox account. Sources told ABC News only that the investigation relates to Omar’s immigration paperwork. A person familiar with the investigation told NBC News the search forms part of a years-long criminal investigation that involves whistleblowers, and a person familiar with the situation told CNBC the investigation into Omar has gone on for years and describes it as complex. The DOJ has given no further details, the BBC reports, and this desk could not confirm the basis of the warrant.

Omar’s office answered with a statement from her communications director, Jacklyn Rogers, the BBC reports. Rogers called the search “an outrageous abuse of power and an unprecedented escalation in the weaponization of federal law enforcement to target political enemies.” The statement continued: “The Congresswoman has done nothing wrong. No president should be able to use the power of the federal government to intimidate his political enemies.” ABC News and NBC News reported that Omar’s office did not immediately respond to their requests for comment, and CNBC said it had requested comment. Omar has not faced charges and has previously denied wrongdoing, ABC News reports. Last month, in a campaign fundraising email that the BBC says it saw in an archive, Omar wrote: “I will say it again so it’s as clear as possible: I’m not at all worried about these investigations, because they are complete shams.”

Administration officials, and the president himself, have long hinted at a federal investigation into Omar, the Guardian reports. White House border czar Tom Homan told Fox News last month that the Department of Homeland Security had Omar under investigation, ABC News and NBC News report. NBC quotes Homan: “If someone committed immigration violation, if someone committed marriage fraud or anything like that, regardless if they’re a congressman or not, no one’s above the law.” Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin made allegations of marital fraud against Omar last month, the BBC reports. The Guardian describes the underlying claim, that Omar sought to help her ex-husband obtain immigration papers via a sham marriage, as years-old but unsubstantiated, and reports that Omar has for years denied it. Vice President JD Vance said at a White House briefing in May that the administration would look into Omar over immigration fraud allegations, ABC News reports, and the Guardian quotes Vance telling Benny Johnson in March: “We actually think that Ilhan Omar definitely committed immigration fraud.”

President Donald Trump attacked Omar by name at a rally on Saturday, ABC News, NBC News and the Guardian report. NBC places the rally in Tennessee and quotes him: “How about Ilhan Omar? She comes from Somalia.” ABC News quotes Trump saying of Somalia, “All they have is crime and squalor,” and adding: “And let's see what happens. JD Vance and our people are looking at it very strongly.” In social media posts earlier this year, Trump said Omar “should be in jail” and “sent back to Somalia,” ABC News reports. Last week Trump wrote that Minnesota “is being taken over by Somali immigrants,” according to the BBC. Earlier this year Omar said Trump’s rhetoric led threats against her to “skyrocket,” ABC News reports. The White House referred comment requests to the Justice Department, according to ABC News and NBC News; CNBC says DHS declined to comment.

NBC News says the timing puts the search under added scrutiny. The search came 22 days before the midterm elections, ABC News, NBC News and the BBC report, and ABC says early voting starts in Minnesota later this week. ABC News reports that the Justice Department’s recent practice has advised prosecutors not to take overt investigative steps against members of Congress or candidates within 60 days of an election. NBC News describes that 60-day window as a long-standing unwritten practice rather than a blanket rule, and says the written policy bars prosecutors and agents from timing investigative steps or public statements to influence an election. The BBC cites a long-standing policy against most enforcement action “likely to raise an issue or the perception” that it aims to affect an election or disadvantage a candidate. A person familiar with the raid told CNBC the DOJ does not consider the action a violation of that policy because officials did not intend the raid to become public. NBC News notes that late last month the department’s inspector general recommended guidance for agents and prosecutors on actions that could “foreseeably affect an impending election.”

Republicans welcomed the search, the BBC reports. Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer said: “Nobody is above the law,” according to the BBC, and added: “We look forward to learning more details about this raid and investigation. ACCOUNTABILITY IS COMING!” The BBC says the timing will likely raise concerns from Democrats. Omar faces Republican John Nagel in a race that the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter rates “solid Democrat,” CNBC reports, and the BBC says she won the 2024 election with 74% of the vote.

Omar, first elected to the House in 2018, became the first Somali-American in Congress, ABC News and the BBC report, and she and Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan became the first Muslim women elected to Congress, according to the BBC and CNBC. Outlets describe her arrival in the U.S. in slightly different terms. The BBC says she came to the U.S. aged 12 after four years in a Kenyan refugee camp; NBC News, citing her website, says she fled Somalia’s civil war with her family at age eight and spent four years in a Kenyan refugee camp; ABC News says she came as a refugee in childhood and has lived in the country since age 12. CNBC reports that she became a U.S. citizen in 2000 at 17. Fox News says the probe concerns paperwork from that period, a claim this desk could not verify; the DOJ statement quoted by outlets does not mention it.