Federal agents searched Rep. Ilhan Omar’s Washington, D.C., home Monday morning, according to two people familiar with the investigation.
Homeland Security Investigations, part of the Department of Homeland Security that conducts criminal investigations, “executed a judicially authorized search warrant obtained by the Department of Justice,” a Justice Department spokesperson said in a statement. “This enforcement action is part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation.”
The statement did not specify that the warrant was linked to Omar and did not provide additional information about the nature of the investigation.
A person familiar with the matter said the investigation was part of a years-long criminal probe involving whistleblowers.
A spokesperson for Omar, D-Minn., did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment on the search, which was first reported by Fox News. The White House and the Department of Homeland Security referred questions about the search to the Justice Department.
The timing places the research under greater scrutiny: There are 22 days until the midterm elections. Omar is running for re-election in Minnesota. There is a long-standing Justice Department practice that prosecutors should be especially cautious about actions near an election that might appear to help or harm a candidate.
There is no general rule prohibiting the ministry from acting within 60 days before an election, but this has long been an unwritten practice. The written policy states that prosecutors and agents cannot time investigative steps or public statements to influence an election and directs them to seek advice when the timing could raise questions.
In 2016, then-FBI Director James Comey publicly revealed developments in the investigation into Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s emails, just 11 days before the presidential election.
After taking office, Trump fired Comey, and the administration justified his firing by saying he violated long-standing Justice Department principles in announcing his findings on the Clinton case. Trump said he would have fired Comey “regardless” of the Justice Department memo outlining what he saw as his missteps.
Last month, border czar Tom Homan told Fox News that Omar was under investigation by the Department of Homeland Security.
“If someone has committed an immigration violation, if someone has committed marriage fraud or something like that, whether they’re a member of Congress or not, no one is above the law,” Homan said at the time. “So I’ll leave it at that. We’ll let HSI, Homeland Security Investigations, continue the investigation.”
Omar immigrated to the United States from Somalia as a child. She fled the civil war in Somalia with her family at the age of eight and stayed in a refugee camp in Kenya for four years before moving to the United States, her website details.
President Donald Trump has often lashed out at Omar, who is a member of a progressive faction of women in Congress known collectively as the “Squad,” criticizing her for her liberal positions.
Trump targeted both Omar and Somalis this weekend during his remarks at a rally in Tennessee.
“And Ilhan Omar? She comes from Somalia,” he said on Saturday to boos from the crowd.
The president called the country ungoverned and lawless, saying “all they have is crime and misery.”
“What they did in Minnesota, these people from Somalia, what they did in Minnesota should never be allowed to happen,” he added. “And let’s see what happens. JD Vance and our people are paying close attention to that.”
Earlier this year, Trump said the Justice Department and Congress were “monitoring” the congresswoman. The president has also repeatedly targeted Minnesota because of the fraud scandals that have rocked the state.
Last week, Trump asked Minnesotans to “fight back” against Somali immigrants. He claimed in a Truth Social article that the state “is being taken over by Somali immigrants.”
One of the most high-profile fraud cases was a $250 million deal in which perpetrators allegedly stole money from a Covid-related program that provided food to children. Since then, the Justice Department has announced criminal charges against more than a dozen people in Minnesota for alleged social services fraud.
The former leader of Feeding Our Future, the nonprofit at the center of the $250 million fraud case, is white. Most of the defendants in these cases are of Somali descent, according to the U.S. attorney’s office, a fact that Trump has emphasized by repeatedly disparaging people of Somali descent.
Omar blamed Trump’s rhetoric against her and Somali immigrants as a contributing factor to an attack on her at a town hall event in January.
Gn headline
