Omar’s Relatives Get Subpoenas in Immigration-fraud Probe

The investigation of Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, whom federal authorities suspect of immigration fraud, includes subpoenas to her relatives, news reports have disclosed.

An anti-American refugee from Somalia imported on the taxpayer’s dime, Omar faces accusations that she lied on immigration paperwork after she landed here a penniless waif in 1995.

A former federal prosecutor told CNN’s Jake Tapper that Omar could be in big trouble if she falsified that paperwork.

Subpoenas

One individual who received a subpoena from a federal grand jury in Minnesota, The New York Times reported, is Omar’s sister, Sahra Noor. So “did at least one other member of her family circle, according to people familiar with the investigation.”

“The specifics of the investigation into Ms. Omar remain unclear, but in recent months, federal investigators have been scrutinizing her family’s immigration history,” the newspaper continued:

The inquiry focuses in part on whether Ms. Omar’s late father, Nur Omar Mohamed, lied or omitted information in immigration forms before becoming a U.S. citizen.

The subpoenas are another investigative step the Justice Department is taking just a few weeks before Election Day, a time when law enforcement officials typically avoid taking overt measures, such as executing search warrants and issuing subpoenas, that could be seen as trying to help or hurt a candidate. Prosecutors have sometimes been willing to carry out such steps if they have reason to believe evidence could be destroyed, or if other crimes could be committed.

But the chances of such an investigation helping Omar’s GOP opponent, former Minnesota state cop John Nagel, are zero to none. District 5 is solid blue. She won 74 percent of the vote in the heavily Somalian city in 2024.

But that fact hasn’t stopped accusations that President Trump is “orchestrating” the investigation.

Trump “Orchestrating” Investigation?

“Norman L. Eisen, a lawyer who has repeatedly sued the Trump administration in recent months, announced on social media on Tuesday that a nonprofit group he works for had requested an investigation into whether administration officials violated the Hatch Act by ‘orchestrating’ the search of Ms. Omar’s home,” the Times reported:

The request was made to the Office of the Special Counsel, which oversees enforcement of the Hatch Act, a law that puts limits on the political activities of federal employees.

“Officials can’t use criminal power to affect an election,” Mr. Eisen wrote. “This is the textbook case.”

However, “A law enforcement source in Minnesota tells me that there are legitimate reasons to investigate the circumstances around Omar’s immigration to the U.S. and possible conspiracy to hide it since, as there were when the probe began during the Biden administration,” CNN’s Jake Tapper said last night on The Lead.

Speaking with former U.S. attorney Elie Honig, Tapper noted that Omar’s trouble might stem from lying about her age in immigration paperwork by claiming, when she was 18 or older, that she was 17 and still a minor, which would make it “easier to become a citizen because her father from Somalia was a naturalized citizen.”

Replied Honig:

Most federal crimes in the immigration area will have a maximum of a five-year statute of limitations. We’re obviously well beyond that from 2000, so there could be a couple of possibilities. One, some offenses say that if a person gets into the country or gets status by making false statements, and then remains in the country, that will extend … the statute of limitations. Two, it could be that more recent paperwork was submitted — perhaps a reapplication or renewal, could be somebody relating to Representative Omar, somebody around her. And then three, if prosecutors have evidence that within the last five years, there’s been some evidence of obstruction, some effort to get stories straight, to destroy documents, to persuade potential witnesses to say a certain thing, then those obstruction charges, if they happened within the last five years, would also be within the statute of limitations.

Honig also emphasized that the Omar probe began under President Joe Biden, and that President Donald Trump’s administration just reopened it.

“So, I think that’s going to undermine any argument she may have down the line that this is politically selective and vindictive,” Honig said.

Initial Raid

Federal agents raided Omar’s home in Washington, D.C., on Monday at 6 a.m. Among the possible evidence seized was Omar’s cell phone, The Associated Press reported.

Last month, border czar Tom Homan told Fox that the Department of Homeland Security had mounted a criminal investigation, reprising what he said in December.

A fraud investigator who reviewed Omar’s file confirmed that “there was immigration fraud involved,” Homan told Newsmax. The “statute of limitations became the issue in the last four years when this was first brought up” in 2020 because of the Biden administration, Homan continued:

[We’re] pulling the records, [we’re] pulling the files. We’re looking at it. But this fraud investigator who I know personally, one of the best fraud investigators in HSI (Homeland Security Investigations), said there’s no doubt. He reviewed the file. So I’m running that down this week … and we’ll see.

“Make no mistake: this is an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement,” Omar wrote on X:

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.

Omar is also credibly accused of marriage fraud by marrying her brother.

As well, Omar is accused of knowing about the scheme to defraud federal taxpayers of $250 million in food subsidies. Aimee Bock, the food-fraud mastermind, claimed that Omar aided the fraud by writing the legislation that enabled the fraudsters to get the federal subsidies. Omar also knew about fraud, Bock said.

Omar’s recent emendation to her financial disclosure has also raised eyebrows.