FBI and Homeland Security agents investigated allegations about Rep. Ilhan Omar’s 2009 marriage in the summer of 2016, The New York Times reported on Oct. 29, renewing scrutiny of claims the Minnesota Democrat has repeatedly denied.
Omar’s spokeswoman, Jackie Rogers, rejected the report. “Rep. Omar has repeatedly and unequivocally denied this baseless, disgusting conspiracy theory,” she said, calling it “a desperate political smear.”
What the Ilhan Omar report says
Six current and former officials told the Times that agents found evidence suggesting Omar and her former husband, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, were siblings, Newsmax reported. The Times also said it remains unclear what evidence investigators had to establish that.
The case stalled chiefly because prosecutors concluded the suspected offense fell outside a five-year statute of limitations, according to the report. Omar has not been charged with any crime.
Omar was already a U.S. citizen when she married Elmi, a British citizen, in 2009. They divorced in 2017. She has denied that he is her brother or that the marriage was meant to help him gain immigration status.
A 2016 letter and a new investigation
In August 2016, then-U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger wrote that his office was “not investigating, nor have we requested an investigation into Ms. Omar.” Omar treated the letter as clearing her. Luger told the Times it “was never meant to say anything about the substance of the claims” and said agents could have pursued the matter without his knowledge.
The report comes amid a separate federal investigation into Omar’s immigration history. Federal agents searched her Washington home on Oct. 12, weeks before she seeks a fifth term, Fox News reported. Omar has hired former Biden administration lawyer Amy Jeffress to represent her.
Democrats have condemned the inquiry as political persecution and said the search broke a Justice Department policy meant to keep investigations from influencing elections.