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The federal raid on Rep. Ilhan Omar’s Washington, D.C., home prompted warnings Wednesday from a conservative watchdog chief that more revelations could come, as the Minnesota Democrat faces separate investigations into her immigration records and financial disclosures.
Oversight Project President Mike Howell, whose group pushed to eliminate a $1.031 million allocation supported by Omar, says the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) research raises broader questions about Congress’s accountability and what investigators might uncover next.
Her warning comes as U.S. Attorney Jeanine F. Pirro confirmed to “America Reports” that her office was investigating the Minnesota Democrat’s financial disclosures, while separate reports revealed that federal investigators had subpoenaed Omar’s relatives in an immigration-related investigation.
FEDERAL AGENTS RAID ILHAN OMAR’S DC HOME AMID IMMIGRATION FRAUD INVESTIGATION
Federal agents from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) raided the Washington, D.C., home of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., early Monday morning, a source familiar with the operation told Fox News Digital. (Andrew Murray/Fox News Digital)
“I think there are other shoes that are going to drop here,” Howell told Fox News Digital.
“That’s why I think the Democrats just couldn’t resist the temptation to get out of there before they saw any evidence and just circle the wagons (around Omar),” he said.
DEMOCRATS’ FURRY AGAINST ILHAN OMAR RAID DRAWS SCANTING GOP REMINDER OF PAST RAID: ‘SETS PRECEDENT’
Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and her husband, Tim Mynett, enter a Washington, D.C., home that was raided by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents early Monday morning. (Joshua Lott/Getty Images; Andrew Murray/Fox News Digital)
“I will say it seems like they’re going backwards a little bit. It’s gone from just an all-encompassing defense of Omar to an insubstantial defense, talking about ‘well, that thing was old’ or ‘it’s political since she’s Ilhan Omar’.”
Howell suggested that the arguments of Omar’s defenders indicate that there is “more than peaches and cream under the hood.”
WATCH: ILHAN OMAR Denies Feds Contacted Her After Czar Homan Confirms ‘Criminal’ Investigation
Howell’s warning extends beyond Omar to what he describes as a broader failure of accountability in Washington, where lawmakers can defend taxpayer-funded projects that then face questions about their legitimacy.
Fox News has learned that federal investigators are examining whether Omar’s age was accurately reported when she arrived in the United States in 1995 and when she acquired U.S. citizenship in 2000, including whether inaccurate information could have affected her eligibility for citizenship through her father under the law at the time.
ILHAN OMAR’S HUSBAND INSISTS HE HAS ‘NO CONCERNS’ AMID FEDERAL IMMIGRATION INVESTIGATION
U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine F. Pirro speaks during a crime news conference in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, DC, August 11. (Eric Lee/For the Washington Post via Getty Images)
The investigation also focuses on the paperwork his late father filled out and whether he provided inaccurate information. Sources told Fox News that investigators are looking into potential immigration fraud over several years.
Federal investigators have issued more than a dozen subpoenas in the immigration investigation, including subpoenas against members of Omar’s family.
The immigration investigation is separate from Pirro’s financial disclosure probe, sources told Fox News.
“We’re in the speculation zone of course,” Howell told Fox News Digital, acknowledging uncertainty over the scope of federal investigations.
DEMOCRATS HAVE ‘DIRTY HANDS’ FOLLOWING COMPLAINTS ABOUT OMAR RAID WEEKS BEFORE ELECTION, EX-PROSECUTOR SAYS
Still, Howell argued that obtaining a search warrant against a sitting congressman in Washington suggested that investigators had developed substantial evidence, although the warrant established only that a judge found probable cause to believe that the search would uncover evidence or other material capable of being seized, not that Omar had committed a crime.
Howell pointed to what he sees as a unique combination of circumstances — an HSI investigation during the Trump administration, a warrant authorized by a federal judge in a heavily Democratic Washington, D.C., and the proximity to the election — as reasons he believes investigators might have substantial evidence.
“They probably got the goods,” Howell said. “You can’t ask a federal judge to approve something like this in Washington, D.C., unless there’s something pretty compelling.”
Jonathan Fahey, former acting director of ICE and federal prosecutor for the neighboring Eastern District of Virginia, said the timing of the HSI search raises questions about whether investigators are reviewing more recent documents related to long-standing immigration allegations.
“I guess what they’re looking for is newer things that have been used with what they believe to be false information,” Fahey told Fox News Digital, referring to the immigration investigation.
Fahey suggested that knowingly repeating materially false information in more recent federal records could create a separate legal exposure, depending on the documents, circumstances and applicable laws, even though criminal charges based solely on older records would be statute-barred.
Former FBI agent Nicole Parker warned that Omar might not face criminal liability if her father filed allegedly false documents when she was a minor.
“If her father lied and filled out the (citizenship/naturalization) forms, then in my opinion she will not be held criminally responsible,” Parker said.
However, Parker said Omar could face a separate legal question if authorities establish that she obtained citizenship through materially false information.
“This could potentially denaturalize her and cause her to lose her citizenship if it had been obtained under false pretenses and false information,” she said.
In January, the Oversight Project challenged a proposed $1.031 million appropriation for Generation Hope MN’s Justice Empowerment Initiative in Minneapolis, a project supported by Omar and Minnesota’s Democratic senators.
The group raised concerns about the nonprofit’s finances, operations and eligibility for taxpayer funding, including questions about its drug treatment services in a shared location with a Minneapolis restaurant, whose owner previously confirmed to Fox News Digital that Generation Hope operated out of offices upstairs.
“We said, let’s go check these assignments,” Howell recalled.
Conservative Republicans later opposed the funding, with Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, among those who pushed for its removal.
The earmark was removed, and Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, subsequently asked the Justice Department for a thorough review of the nonprofit.
The funding dispute raised questions about Congress’s review of proposed grantees, but its removal did not establish fraud on the part of Omar or the organization. No connection between the earmarking controversy and any of the federal investigations has been publicly confirmed.
As part of his broader argument about “institutional rot,” Howell argued that the Omar earmarking controversy is not unique, criticizing what he sees as lawmakers putting loyalty outside the United States ahead of their constitutional responsibilities.
“It’s not normal. And it seems normal because it happens so often. And I think it’s time that we take the oath to the Constitution and the members take the oath seriously,” he said.
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“If someone is loyal to another place, they shouldn’t be in Congress.”
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Omar has denied any wrongdoing and accused the Trump administration of weaponizing federal law enforcement against political opponents. His office called the search an abuse of power and previously pointed to congressional ethics findings recommending dismissal of allegations about his financial disclosures, but did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
David Spunt of Fox News contributed to this report.
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