Former US President Barack Obama has criticized the Trump administration’s new investigation into Representative Ilhan Omar. However, the first probe into whether she married her brother began under Obama in 2016.
Obama called the raid on Omar’s home “appalling.” He posted on X: “Federal agents have raided her home, confiscated personal records, and seized her phone – all to try and uncover a nonexistent smoking gun from 20 years ago that will somehow make their case.”
“Think about that. The full weight of the federal government is being brought down on a law-abiding elected official because she has dared to criticize the president.”
Fox News Digital has confirmed that the probe into whether Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Democrat from Minnesota, married her brother in 2009 as part of an immigration fraud scheme began under Obama in 2016.
As per Fox News Digital, a source familiar with the matter said a US Attorney in Minnesota, appointed by then-President Joe Biden, shut down the probe in 2021.
As per The New York Times, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security started the probe in the summer of 2016. They “found some evidence that [the marriage] was fraudulent,” the report said. It is not clear what the evidence was.
Now, the issue is back in the spotlight because of a fresh federal investigation into the Somali-born congresswoman by the Trump administration. Part of the new probe is about whether she or her father committed immigration fraud on her citizenship application.
Obama continued: “It is a basic principle of American democracy that the government can’t selectively target individuals simply because of their political beliefs or what they say. But that’s exactly what the Trump Administration is doing to Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.”
“The fact that any president, or any administration, is willing to engage in such transparent efforts to intimidate someone should outrage all Americans, regardless of how they feel about Congresswoman Omar’s political views,” he added.
“Because if this becomes the new normal, there’s no reason to believe it will stop with her – or that future presidents, in either party, won’t do the same.”
What the new probe is about
As per Fox News, officials from Homeland Security Investigations raided Omar’s home on October 12. Federal authorities took her passport, personal phone and computer.
The raid is believed to be about claims that she gave wrong information about her age on her immigration papers. Omar became a US citizen in 2000, about five years after she moved to the US from Somalia as a refugee. She was given citizenship because she was believed to be under 17. If she was actually 18, as the Trump administration apparently suspects, she would not have been eligible this way.
As per Fox News Digital, part of the probe is about whether she or her father committed immigration fraud on her citizenship application. Her father, Nur Omar Mohamed, died in 2020. It also reports that over a dozen grand jury subpoenas have been sent to Omar’s family members and other key figures.
According to the Post, the Biden administration was also reportedly tipped off about concerns over her paperwork but did not act on it.
The court documents from the Trump administration called her “Ilhan Nur Said Elmi.”
Sources told Fox News that this is her “real name.” Another federal court document called her “Ilhan Omar Nur Said Elmi, a/k/a Ilhan Omar.”
What are the allegations
The main allegation is that Omar married her brother, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, in 2009 to help him get a green card. The claim first appeared on a Somali online forum. According to The Post, the marriage was part of an alleged immigration scheme. Omar was legally married to Elmi from 2009 to 2017.
Omar has denied wrongdoing. She called the idea that she married her brother “insane” and a right-wing conspiracy. When asked if she married a relative, she told MS NOW: “Not to my knowledge.”
An Omar spokesperson told Fox News Digital: “Rep. Omar has repeatedly and unequivocally denied this baseless, disgusting conspiracy theory. This is a desperate political smear designed to distract from Trump’s failed presidency and two years of Republican failure in Congress. And it’s disgraceful that the media continues to give this lie oxygen.”