Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar is objecting to the Trump administration’s search of her home earlier this week – challenging its legality and demanding the return of her property seized by federal agents.
Omar’s lawyers sent a letter, obtained by CNN, to Justice Department prosecutors on Friday, saying: “This vindictive, punitive and politically motivated criminal investigation against one of the President’s leading critics in Congress violates Rep. Omar’s constitutional rights and threatens the separation of powers.” »
The administration pushed for an unusually aggressive search of Omar’s Washington, D.C., area home as part of an investigation into immigration fraud targeting the congresswoman, possible false statements made on government documents and a potential conspiracy, according to several people familiar with the investigation. Federal agents executed a search warrant early Monday after a federal judge signed the warrant, while limiting how the Justice Department could access its records. Omar is the constant target of ire from President Donald Trump’s administration.
Omar sought to dismantle the foundations of the investigation, saying she became a legally naturalized citizen in 2000 after fleeing Somalia in 1995.
“There is no legitimate basis to suggest that she violated any law regarding her citizenship status,” Omar’s attorneys, Amy Jeffress and Joshua Matz, wrote in the letter to federal prosecutors. They also demanded that all video and audio recordings made by federal agents during the search be preserved.
Justice Department spokespeople did not immediately respond to CNN’s questions about the accusations made by Omar’s lawyers.
Omar’s lawyers have highlighted a number of problems with the way the search of Omar’s home was conducted. They said the House Counsel’s Office was not informed of the search until after it was made public. The Washington judge had ordered special procedures to inform the House, Omar and his lawyers of his constitutional protections as a member of Congress, the letter said. Omar’s defense lawyers said investigators may have violated the congresswoman’s rights by not respecting the judge’s parameters.
According to the letter, no one from the U.S. Attorney’s Office or the Department of Justice was present during the search to read Omar her privileges under the speech or debate clause, and instead Omar was presented with a waiver that she did not sign. Omar’s lawyers also said they were not given the opportunity to identify or separate the documents protected by the clause.
The search “stems from a years-old conspiracy theory,” Omar’s lawyers wrote, also noting that the search was conducted less than three weeks before Election Day.
“Historically, the Department has refrained from this type of investigative activity in the run-up to an election, in order to avoid even the appearance of politically motivated police actions. But the political motivations behind this pre-election investigation and search are clear as day. For the reasons discussed above, this search was neither justified nor legal,” they wrote in the letter, first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
Jeffress and Matz noted that Omar was repeatedly referred to by her first name in the search warrant documents and called on agents to respect the congresswoman with her appropriate title in the future.
Katelyn Polantz contributed to this report.
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