What we know about the criminal investigation into US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar

What we know about the criminal investigation into US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar

Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has represented Minnesota since 2018

US government officials searched the home of Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar this week as part of what is being described as a "federal criminal investigation".

The justice department said the search warrant had been approved by a court. The exact nature of the criminal investigation is still not clear.

The search came after several comments from federal officials that questioned Omar's US citizenship, which she obtained in 2000 after arriving from Kenya.

Omar, who has represented Minnesota since 2018, said the raid was "the latest escalation" in President Donald Trump's "campaign of political intimidation". He has denied involvement.

Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents searched Omar's home in Washington DC on 12 October, while she was there with her husband.

The Wall Street Journal reported that her cellphone, notebooks, personal computers and passport were among the items seized.

"This enforcement action is part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation," the justice department said in a statement at the time.

Since then, investigators have sent more than a dozen subpoenas to Omar's family members, Fox News reports.

Several US media outlets have reported that the investigation is linked to Omar's US citizenship and whether she lied about her age when she arrived in the US in 1995.

Questions have been raised over whether the age listed on Omar's citizenship application was different from her actual birth date.

Her marriages have also come under scrutiny. Trump is among those who have accused her of marrying her brother to obtain US citizenship.

Omar's finances have been examined in connection with her current marriage to former Democratic political consultant Timothy Mynett. She has denied any wrongdoing and has described the investigations into her as "complete shams".

US Attorney Jeanine Pirro has said her office is investigating Omar's financial disclosures.

Omar's immigration records have been examined before by Republicans and, earlier this year, fellow congresswoman Nancy Mace of South Carolina unsuccessfully tried to secure a subpoena for her records.

Mynett told Fox News that Omar came to the US when she was 12 as a war refugee. He said he has "no concerns" about her citizenship.

Omar was born in Somalia before fleeing with her family to a refugee camp in Kenya. She arrived in the US with her father and others in 1995 before becoming a naturalised US citizen in 2000.

According to US media, the central issue in the investigation is whether her father lied about her age on the application, listing her as 17 rather than 18.

If Omar was 18 when her father applied for citizenship, she would have had to go through her own immigration process separately.

After arriving from Kenya, Nur Omar Mohamed first settled with his family in Washington before later moving to Minnesota. He worked as a cabdriver and postal worker.

Omar described him as an educator and said he died in 2020 from Covid-19 complications.

According to the New York Post, which cited an Oxford University doctoral researcher, Mohamed "misrepresented himself as a refugee".

The Post said he had a decades-long military career, including a leadership role under former Somali President Siad Barre's military dictatorship.

Barre took power in Somalia in a bloodless coup in 1969. Supporters saw him as a pan-Africanist who backed causes such as the campaign against South Africa's racist system of apartheid, while critics regarded him as a dictator who oversaw widespread human rights abuses until he was removed from power in 1991.

"[Nur Omar Mohamed] was a full colonel in Siad Barre's military regime," historian and researcher Mohamed Haji Ingiriis told The Post. "Ilhan's father was never an educator."

The Trump administration has made a determined effort to detain and deport immigrants suspected of being in the US illegally. Permanent residents and green card holders have also been affected.

According to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a nonpartisan data research company, there has also been a rise in denaturalisation lawsuits filed by the Trump administration.

Denaturalisation is when the US citizenship of someone who was not granted it by birth is revoked. The justice department must file a lawsuit proving the person lied in a material way during the application process.

This appears to be the basis being laid in the current investigation into Omar.

Trump has repeatedly suggested Omar should be deported, calling for her to "go back" to Somalia.

At a rally in Ohio on Monday, Trump referred to the search of Omar's home, saying: "I don't know what they're doing with it, but I can tell you this: she's a disaster."

Trump then denigrated Somalis in the US more broadly, prompting chants of "deport" from the crowd.

After her home was searched, Omar wrote on X: "I'm ok. Make no mistake: this is an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement.

"For ten years, Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns," she continued. "I will not be silenced."

Trump has said the investigation into her has "nothing to do with me".

The timing of the federal probe has gone against justice department precedent of not taking action against officials running for office this close to an election.

The raid took place with the November midterm elections only weeks away, drawing condemnation from some of Omar's Democratic colleagues, who said she had been subjected to relentless "vile personal attacks and baseless accusations".