DHS Secretary Mullin calls Ilhan Omar investigation ‘strong case,’ says agents executed multiple search warrants

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said federal agents executed multiple search warrants on the same day. research Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar’s home in Washington. During his appearance on a podcast Friday, Mullin described the ongoing investigation as a “strong case” while suggesting that cases of coordinated immigration fraud could be prosecuted under federal racketeering laws.

In an interview with Andrew Kolvet, who hosts the “Charlie Kirk Show,” Mullin said several arrest warrants were served Monday, adding that a judge authorized the enforcement action and that investigators expected to present their case to a grand jury.

Omar has not been charged with any crime. She called the investigation politically motivated.

“She wasn’t — or it wasn’t the only place we served the term,” Mullin said, referring to the Minnesota congresswoman’s Washington residence. “Several other arrest warrants were executed on the same day.”

“We have had it signed by a judge and we hope to be able to take the case to a grand jury,” Mullin said, revealing new details about the scope of the operation. “But I can tell you we wouldn’t move forward, and President Trump didn’t want to move forward either, unless we knew it couldn’t be politically motivated. Now they want to try to make it political. This individual wants to try to show off. This was about upholding the laws of our country once again, and that’s a strong argument.”

President Trump previously said he knew nothing about the investigation, which is being conducted by DHS’s Homeland Security Investigations division and the Department of Justice. Asked Monday about the Omar investigation, Mr. Trump told reporters: “I think he’s a terrible person, but it’s really up to the DOJ.”

Mullin’s remarks come amid a federal investigation into possible fraud involving immigration documents submitted by Omar’s family decades ago. The documents in question date back to Omar’s childhood and concern documents completed by her late father when she was a child, CBS News reported earlier this week. Multiple Omar’s relatives subpoenaed by grand jury as part of the investigation, and the lawmaker’s personal cell phone was seized by DHS, sources told CBS News.

During the interview, Kolvet also asked Mullin about a hypothetical scenario involving a former foreign warlord who entered the United States as a refugee with his daughter. Mullin did not establish that the circumstances applied to Omar’s family. But the DHS secretary used that assumption to suggest that those who submit fraudulent immigration documents and allow others to enter the country under the same alleged system could very well be prosecuted under U.S. law.

Such conduct, he said, could potentially constitute a violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, a federal law used to prosecute organized criminal enterprises.

“If someone…fills out their paperwork illegally, and claims that they are this person and this is their past, and then behind that individual, a lot of other people come in. And I’m just saying hypothetically, in a whole bunch of cases that are out there, then that qualifies as a RICO case, right?” » suggested the DHS secretary. “Because there was a conspiracy to deceive the U.S. government, and so everything that came out of that could then be looked at (in part) in the same case.”

Mullin suggested that a racketeering prosecution could allow investigators to examine conduct dating back decades, arguing that statutes of limitations would not generally apply to such cases.

Under federal law, RICO criminal prosecutions are generally subject to a five-year statute of limitations, although in some cases prosecutors can incorporate older acts into a timely prosecution involving an ongoing criminal enterprise or conspiracy.

In the case of Grunewald v. The United States Supreme Court ruled in 1957 that prosecutors cannot continue a conspiracy indefinitely simply because the perpetrators covered it up after it ended.

Mullin did not explicitly state that prosecutors were pursuing RICO charges against Omar. But his remarks suggest investigators are questioning whether the alleged immigration violations could be examined as part of a broader conspiracy rather than just isolated offenses. He said Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents worked closely with the Department of Justice to develop the case.

It is unusual for federal officials to speak openly about ongoing criminal investigations beyond confirming that a court-authorized search was conducted, in part because of due process and grand jury secrecy rules.

CBS News has reached out to Omar’s attorney for comment.

Earlier this week, Omar – a staunch Trump critic who has drawn the president’s ire for years – denied any wrongdoing and declared that she “will not be silenced.”

“Make no mistake: This is an attempt to target political enemies and militarize federal law enforcement,” she 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.”