Justice Dept. issues subpoenas in Ilhan Omar investigation

Federal agents investigating Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., have issued subpoenas to some relatives as officials scour her family’s history for evidence of fraud and false statements in immigration paperwork, according to people familiar with the matter.

A sister of Omar’s, Sahra Noor, received a subpoena, as did at least one other member of her family circle, according to people familiar with the investigation. On Monday, Department of Homeland Security agents executed a search warrant at her home in Washington, D.C., carrying out boxes of documents, the people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss investigative steps.

Noor, a healthcare professional and author, did not reply to requests for comment sent by email and made in a call with someone who identified herself as a daughter of Noor’s.

Grand jury subpoenas are issued to gather evidence about possible crimes and do not mean that the recipients themselves are under investigation. On Monday, Omar condemned the search of her home, calling it an effort by the Trump administration “to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement.” She has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing on immigration matters.

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The specifics of the investigation into Omar remain unclear, but in recent months, federal investigators have been scrutinizing her family’s immigration history. The inquiry focuses in part on whether Omar’s late father, Nur Omar Mohamed, lied or omitted information on immigration forms before becoming a U.S. citizen.

The subpoenas are another investigative step the Department of Justice is taking just a few weeks before Election Day, a time when law enforcement officials typically avoid taking overt measures, such as executing search warrants and issuing subpoenas, that could be seen as trying to help or hurt a candidate. Prosecutors have sometimes been willing to carry out such steps if they have reason to believe evidence could be destroyed or if other crimes could be committed.

Such steps so close to the election, on the heels of President Donald Trump’s public attacks on Omar, have raised questions about how much of the case is based on political pressure from the White House and how much of it is based on solid evidence. In his second term, the president has publicly demanded that the Justice Department charge certain people with crimes, and has at times fired those who declined to do so.

The president on Tuesday suggested on social media that Omar had engaged in fraud to make millions of dollars. He also suggested she had engaged in immigration fraud. “America wants answers, and we want them, NOW!” he said.

Randall D. Eliason, a former federal prosecutor and retired law professor, said the Trump Justice Department had so eroded trust that it had “sort of forfeited the right to a presumption of regularity,” a legal term for federal judges assuming prosecutors are acting in good faith.

“With all of the other things they have done to politicize the department and use its power to go after the president’s enemies,” he continued, “it certainly looks extremely suspicious. But without seeing the search warrant affidavit, you can’t say for certain.”

Norman L. Eisen, a lawyer who has repeatedly sued the Trump administration in recent months, announced on social media Tuesday that a nonprofit group he works for had requested an investigation into whether administration officials violated the Hatch Act by “orchestrating” the search of Omar’s home. The request was made to the Office of the Special Counsel, which oversees enforcement of the Hatch Act, a law that puts limits on the political activities of federal employees.

“Officials can’t use criminal power to affect an election,” Eisen wrote. “This is the textbook case.”

Omar has represented a solidly blue district that includes Minneapolis since 2019. She won her primary election in a landslide this year and does not face a competitive Republican rival on the November ballot.

Omar’s immigration history has been investigated by federal authorities for more than a decade, but those inquiries have not led to charges. In an interview in March, Vice President JD Vance declared that Omar was “definitely guilty” of immigration fraud.

At a political rally Saturday, two days before the search, Trump singled out Omar and her Somali heritage, and mentioned Vance’s efforts overseeing fraud investigations. “Let’s see what happens,” he said.

On Tuesday, Vance said he did not have any advance knowledge of the search of Omar’s home.

“The president and I largely try to stay out of Department of Justice investigations and other prosecutions,” Vance said, adding: “If there’s a real case there, we’re going to follow the facts. If there’s not a real case there, then we won’t.”