Omar Seeks Funds After Immigration Raid at Her Home

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., is soliciting money after her house was raided as part of a federal criminal immigration investigation.

Hours after Department of Homeland Security investigative agents raided the home of the Somali native, she sent out a fundraising message to her supporters, saying, “Please … support me [against] fascist bullies.”

“[President Donald] Trump’s DHS agents just carried out a raid and search of my home,” Omar’s message continued. “Trump has weaponized the DOJ and DHS against his opponents for the last two years, and now that fascism has come to my literal front door. I want to be clear: I will not back down, I will not be intimidated, and I will not be silenced.

“Please, as I do everything I can to take on this extreme abuse of power, I’m humbly asking you to support me today by rushing a contribution: I will not bow to fascist bullies,” the message concluded.

Omar is running for reelection for her U.S. House seat in Minnesota, which has been a national focal point on fraud.

The Trump administration has criticized Omar over allegations she lied on immigration records and married her Somali national brother so he could gain U.S. citizenship.

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota spoke out against his state colleague, stating, “Nobody is above the law.”

“HSI just executed a search warrant at Ilhan Omar’s Washington, D.C., home. We look forward to learning more details about this raid and investigation. Accountability is coming!” Emmer’s statement read.

The Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security are involved in the investigation.

Weeks away from the Nov. 3 midterm election, the Department of Justice is breaking with the 60-day “blackout” period policy. The blackout period is an internal policy, rather than a federal law, that states federal prosecutors and agents will not take actions that affect an election within 60 days of Election Day.

How Strong is the Case?

The Heritage Foundation Legal Fellow Charles “Cully” Stimson says agents were looking for something related to official documents tied to her immigration status and suspects the department had a strong case to be there.

“By definition, it means it’s something related to immigration: immigration fraud, wire fraud related to immigration fraud, sponsoring somebody you weren’t eligible to do, not being of the appropriate age when you swore that you were of a certain age to become a citizen,” Stimson said Tuesday morning on “Fox & Friends First.”

“[It may be] something related to official documents related to her age or age verification or her birth certificate,” he continued. “She’s never really produced her birth certificate, saying that Somalia is not a beacon of awesome paperwork because of their war-torn country. So, I would think either correspondence, emails, texts, financial records, or more likely something related to passport.”

Stimson added that because a federal judge signed off on the search warrant, the DOJ must have presented something substantial, “probably well beyond probable cause.”

“This is not just the Trump administration willy-nilly slithering into a Rep.’s house. This is a federal judge, who’s the stopgap, who said, ‘OK, there’s enough here, go ahead.’”

Stimson said that if investigators found anything that they believe could prove the allegations, they will likely seek an indictment.

“I have grave doubts that a D.C. grand jury would indict somebody, especially a sitting member of Congress who’s a Democrat, unless there’s a big, big amount of evidence,” Stimson continued.