What he says: ““The fact that any president or administration would be willing to engage in such transparent efforts to intimidate someone should outrage all Americans, regardless of what they think of Congresswoman Omar’s political views,” Obama wrote on X.
- “Because if this becomes the new normal, there’s no reason to believe that it will stop with it — or that future presidents, from both parties, won’t do the same.”
Driving the news: Federal agents raided Omar’s Washington home Monday, seizing her phone as part of an investigation into whether she or her late father provided false information on immigration documents 26 years ago.
- The Wall Street Journal reported that the administration aimed to build “a case to strip him of his U.S. citizenship and ultimately deport him.”
- Omar came to the United States from Somalia in 1995 when he was a child. She became a citizen through her father’s naturalization in 2000, when records indicate she was 17 years old.
- But investigators are looking for evidence that she was a year older and therefore not automatically eligible for citizenship.
Flashback: The first Trump administration looked into similar allegations in 2019, including questions about his date of birth and his father’s immigration, but did not find enough evidence to fully investigate, the Washington Post reported.
- The allegation gained attention thanks to a viral claim on social media, according to the Post.
The other side: Omar denounced the investigation as a witch hunt designed to intimidate one of Trump’s fiercest critics in Congress.
- Democrats called it an abuse of power, especially weeks before the election.
American lawyer Jeanine Pirro also said his office was investigating Omar’s financial disclosures, despite a congressional watchdog’s recommendation last month to dismiss allegations of misconduct related to the filings.
Zoom: Obama’s more than 400-word statement was an unqualified denunciation of the Trump administration.
- “Think about it. The entire weight of the federal government is falling on a law-abiding elected official because she dared to criticize the president. And this isn’t the first time this has happened,” he wrote.
- He added: “In these cases, the prosecutions were either blocked or were dismissed because they had no legal basis, and the same thing is likely to happen in this case. But not before Congresswoman Omar’s life was turned upside down, her legal bills piled up, and she was forced to spend time fighting unfounded accusations instead of serving the people of Minnesota.
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