Homeland Security Investigations agents searched the Washington home of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., before dawn Monday. The Justice Department said HSI "executed a judicially authorized search warrant secured by the Department of Justice." It called the search "part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation." Sources told CBS News that investigators are examining possible false statements and immigration fraud. The paperwork at issue was filled out by Omar's late father when she was a child.
The search puts a criminal case against a sitting member of Congress in front of voters three weeks before an election, and it puts the department's own process on public view.
Border czar Tom Homan said in September that Omar was under an "ongoing criminal investigation" and that ICE was involved. Omar said then that no one had contacted her about any inquiry. She was born in Somalia. She and President Trump have clashed in public for years, and the president has questioned her fitness for office many times.
- Sources told CBS News that Attorney General Todd Blanche knew of the search beforehand.
- The Justice Department consulted its Public Integrity Section, CBS reported.
- Agents wearing HSI jackets were seen outside the home early Monday, Fox News reported.
Blanche runs the Justice Department, and HSI, the investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security, ran the search. Omar is a third-term member of the House from Minnesota. House Democratic leaders Hakeem Jeffries, Katherine Clark and Pete Aguilar spoke for her caucus, and Trump spoke for the White House. Naturalized citizens whose parents filed their papers, Omar's constituents and members of Congress in both parties have a stake in how the case is handled.
Disputedwhether the search is an ordinary step in a fraud case or an action aimed at a political opponent of the president.
The FramingsJustice Department framing presents the search as a court-approved step in "an ongoing federal criminal investigation," with HSI carrying out a warrant the department obtained; Homan described the same case in September as criminal. Omar's framing calls the search an "outrageous abuse of power," says she has done nothing wrong and was never told of any investigation, and says she "will not be silenced." House Democratic leadership framing (Jeffries, Clark and Aguilar) calls it "deeply disturbing" and ties it to what they describe as federal power turned on the president's critics. White House framing (Trump) holds that he "had nothing to do with" the search and that the matter belongs to the Justice Department, while calling Omar "a terrible person."
The RecordThe warrant and the department's statement are on record, as CBS News, Fox News and the Washington Examiner reported. The warrant's contents and anything seized have not been made public. No charges have been filed. Confidence that a judge authorized the search: certain. Confidence in where the case leads: low.
What to watch: Whether the Justice Department files charges or a court unseals the warrant. Whether House leaders of either party seek a briefing on the search.
Sources: CBS News, Fox News, Washington Examiner
