Exclusive: Judge Limits Justice Department Access to Rep. Ilhan Omar’s Records Amid Widespread Immigration Fraud Investigation

The Trump administration pushed for an unusually aggressive search of Rep. Ilhan Omar’s home in recent days as part of an immigration fraud investigation targeting the congresswoman, possible false statements made on government documents and a potential conspiracy, according to several people familiar with the investigation.

However, prosecutors first had to confront a federal magistrate judge, during a prolonged back-and-forth that had not previously been reported. D.C. District Court Judge Matthew Sharbaugh ultimately limited how the Justice Department could access Omar’s documents during Monday’s search, before he approved the warrant, because of his role as a congressman and the constitutional protections he offers, several people familiar with the investigation told CNN.

Investigators who prompted the search notably questioned whether Omar or her father, now deceased, had lied about her age when she obtained citizenship in 2000, claiming she was a minor when she was an adult.

Omar emigrated to the United States as a Somali refugee around age 12 and became a citizen in 2000, according to people familiar with Omar’s situation.

A source told CNN that the government may try to expand the investigation into a broader conspiracy case and try to determine whether it involved deception and deliberate falsification of information over the years by a broader group of individuals.

Omar has been the subject of criminal investigations for years, including before Trump took office last year. But the Trump administration went further, saying she had repeatedly made false statements in recent years when filling out government documents, such as a passport. This is what led to the search on Monday, according to the sources.

The search of his Washington home was highly unusual because it took place less than a month before voting ended on Election Day, particularly as Omar is running for re-election as a Democrat in Minnesota.

The federal effort is also unusual this month in its attempt to access a member of Congress’s records — the type of criminal investigative work that Republicans have turned this year into a political firestorm for previous administrations.

As part of the new investigation, at least a dozen subpoenas were issued starting last Friday to witnesses, most of them relatives, according to sources close to the investigation.

Somali government documents and archives are notoriously unreliable and difficult to access due to years of conflict and disconnection among government entities.

In recent weeks, the Justice Department has advocated for broad access to the records that Omar kept at her home in Washington, according to the sources.

The Justice Department argued that with Omar there was little need to preserve the records seized from his home Monday.

But the judge who ultimately approved the search told the Justice Department that it was not possible under the law, the sources said. Sharbaugh, of the D.C. District Court, told D.C. prosecutors they should establish a case review process to protect Omar’s legislative work from investigators.

In Washington, D.C., courts have maintained broad protections around legislative work records for members of Congress under the Speech or Debate Clause of the Constitution.

The multi-day exchanges between the judge and the Justice Department in recent days had not been previously reported.

This could now have broad implications both for federal investigators looking to potentially charge Omar with a crime and for his campaign.

The Justice Department’s approach to this search was also particularly noteworthy because Omar, a U.S. citizen originally from Somalia, is a prominent member of the progressive women’s group known as “The Squad,” a major and frequent political target of President Donald Trump and is running for re-election to Congress in Minnesota, where voting in the midterm elections has already begun.

Omar publicly called the search of his home a political attack motivated by the hatred that Trump and Republicans have for him.

“This is an attempt to target political enemies and militarize federal law enforcement,” Omar said in a social media post Monday. “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.”

She has denied any wrongdoing and has not been charged with any crime. Omar’s attorney did not respond to multiple requests for this story.

Investigators are looking into an unsubstantiated claim that her ex-husband, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, was her brother, in order to get her citizenship — a claim that was repeated by Trump and which Omar called “bigoted lies.”

Even if proven, the statute of limitations would have long expired on any crime, and it’s unclear what role that would play in the investigation, informed sources told CNN.

No charges have been filed by Biden-era investigators and the case around Omar has not progressed as far as current Trump-era investigators have taken it, several people familiar with the investigation said.

The case was reopened last year and is now being led by prosecutors from the assistant attorney general’s office and the U.S. attorney’s office in Minneapolis, the sources said. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C., was also involved.

Any new case, if charged, would likely be complicated by Trump’s rhetoric against Omar, which has lasted for many years and some of which has been racist. Vice President JD Vance has also spoken about discussing the matter with White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, and White House border czar Tom Homan has spoken several times on Fox News about an ongoing investigation into Omar.

“If someone committed an immigration violation or marriage fraud or something like that, whether they’re a member of Congress or not, no one is above the law, so I’ll leave it at that,” Homan said in a September interview after mentioning an “ongoing criminal investigation” surrounding Omar.

A separate investigation into possible financial misconduct, including campaign finance, also continues at the US Attorney’s Office in Washington DC.

D.C. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro was asked Tuesday on Fox News about Omar’s financial disclosures that House ethics investigators previously looked into.

“That’s also under investigation,” Pirro said. “We are looking at the facts. Based on the facts, we will follow them wherever they take us.”

Since the federal court in Washington oversaw the search of Omar’s home, any criminal investigation that relies on its own records could be significantly slowed, and has already raised concerns about the integrity and politicization of the Justice Department.

D.C. District Court judges have become increasingly skeptical of the Trump administration’s approach to constitutional protections in criminal cases, particularly when those cases appear politically charged.

At the same time, Republicans are furious with President Joe Biden’s Justice Department, which has sought communications from members of Congress in past criminal investigations. Capitol Hill Republicans and Trump have been particularly critical of former special counsel Jack Smith who obtained secrecy orders when Smith’s office subpoenaed phone companies to obtain members’ call logs surrounding the investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, conspiracy to attack the U.S. Capitol.

Generally, the Justice Department avoids overt investigative activities that could affect an election within 60 days of Election Day.

In this case, however, senior justice officials approved Monday’s HSI search.