President Donald Trump on Thursday called on Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar to resign from Congress after citing a Fox News Digital report that claimed her legal name differs from the one she has publicly used.
(AFP/Reuters) (AFP/ Reuters)
However, Omar’s office strongly denied the allegation, calling it “completely false.”
In a post on Truth Social, Trump cited the new report and reiterated that Omar had been sworn into Congress under a “fake name” and asserted that she should “immediately resign.” He also urged House Speaker Mike Johnson to consider her congressional seat vacant.
“Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, her real name, has openly admitted to FRAUD, and she will not be legally allowed to be a Member of this August Body from this point forth,” Trump added in the post.
“Ilhan Nur Said Elmo”
Fox News Digital report cited unnamed sources, including a law enforcement source, who alleged that Omar’s legal name is Ilhan Nur Said Elmi and not Ilhan Abdullahi Omar.
Omar has acknowledged in public that she does not have a birth certificate.
According to an official U.S. House biography, she was born in Mogadishu, Somalia, on October 14, 1982. She claims that in 1995, when she was a youngster, she and her family fled war-torn Somalia and arrived in the United States. Prosecutors’ papers are merely accusations, and Omar has not been charged with a crime. The congresswoman’s lawyers did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
Fox News also cited a filing by Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, which referred to the congresswoman as “Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, a/k/a Ilhan Abdullahi Omar.”
The controversy comes days after federal agents executed a search warrant at Omar’s Washington residence as part of an investigation into alleged irregularities involving immigration paperwork, according to Fox News Digital.
Fox News reported that investigators seized Omar’s passport and phone during the search and questioned her sister as part of the investigation. The outlet also reported that authorities are examining whether Omar or her father committed fraud in immigration documents.
Fox News also quoted former federal immigration judge Bruce Hanes Hansen, who said that if it were proven in court that someone had lived under an alias, government documents completed under that identity could face legal scrutiny.
Also read: Rep Ilhan Omar’s phone seized, relatives subpoenaed amid criminal probe ahead of midterms
Omar’s office rejects allegations
Omar’s office disputed the report after its publication.
“This is completely false. Ilhan Omar is her real name,” a spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
The spokesperson also criticized Fox News for reviving allegations that Omar has repeatedly denied over the years.
In a second statement, the office referenced Omar’s recent interview on MS NOW, where she again rejected longstanding allegations that she married her brother for immigration purposes.
According to Fox News, Omar described the accusations as “baseless” and “disgusting.” During the interview, when asked whether she had married her brother, she responded, “Not to my knowledge,” which her office later characterized as sarcasm.
The spokesperson said the claims were a “desperate smear” intended to “distract from designed to distract from Trump’s failed presidency and two years of Republican failure in Congress.”