After last week’s search of Rep. Ilhan Omar’s Washington, D.C.-area home, a source familiar with the search said newly obtained DNA evidence could help substantiate a longstanding allegation that Omar married Ahmed Nur Said Elmi in 2009, believing him to be her brother, to help him obtain immigration status, according to anonymous sources cited by the New York Post.
On Tuesday, Fox News reported that Omar’s sister Noor voluntarily talked to federal agents and was Interviewed after her sister’s house was raided and searched on October 12.
Sahra Noor, who is Omar’s older sister out of seven children, was born in Mogadishu, Somalia, around 1976/1977. She fled Somalia with her father and five other siblings, including Omar, during the civil war in 1991.
This new wave of details poured in after Homeland Security searched Omar’s Washington area home on October 12 under a judicially authorized warrant as part of an ongoing federal investigation. The allegations have been circulating since 2016.
During the search, boxes marked “Seized Property Evidence” were seen being carried by agents. The Wall Street Journal later reported that a cellphone belonging to the congresswoman was seized, including a computer and her passport.
According to people familiar with the matter, to the POST, federal agents are planning to use the obtained DNA sample to unravel the mystery behind the long-chased allegation about whether Omar married her blood brother.
Feds got this deep into the investigation after using government records, the obtained DNA, and whistleblowers, which would likely extend to her other siblings for immigration fraud, according to those source.
Tom Homan, Trump’s administration’s border czar, said on Fox News that he had been told investigators had “a strong case” against Omar, adding, “we’ll let the evidence lead where it leads.”
Since her house was searched, concerns have been raised that Omar has not been seen in public and speculation has emerged that she may have fled the U.S., but that remains speculation.
The nuance is that no one knows whose samples were tested, whether testing had been completed or whether a laboratory had verified any result, nor whether the material was obtained before or after the October 12 search. Those are details the source familiar with the matter told The Post could not verify, as well as Relish Wire News.
Agents allegedly searched garbage in an effort to obtain DNA samples, but what led them to believe a sample could be found in a garbage bin remains unclear, although an alleged text message found on Omar’s sister’s phone reportedly helped trigger the investigation that led to the search of her home.
The inquiry concerns alleged criminal fraud involving Omar’s immigration paperwork, which was finalized by her late father, Nur Omar Mohamed, when she was a child, at about 17 years old. Investigators are examining whether he misstated her birth date so she could obtain citizenship when he naturalized in 2000. The inquiry also involves allegations that Omar married her brother, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, in 2009, intending to help him secure permanent residency in the United States.
“If you argue a conspiracy, you can allege overt acts in furtherance of the conspiracy that are outside the statute of limitations,” Neama Rahmini, a former federal prosecutor, told the New York Post, as reported in its exclusive.
“There’s two reasons why I think the conspiracy will be charged,” Rahmini added to NYP in their exclusive interview. “First, you have an unindicted co-conspirator in her dad, who died. … [Second,] you get some of this older conduct that’s outside the statute of limitations as well.”
Omar has repeatedly denied the sibling claim since 2016, describing the allegations as “absurd and offensive.”
Elmi, a British citizen who now lives in the United Kingdom, married Omar back in 2009 and divorced her in 2017. He later sought a marriage based green card, but withdrew the application in 2019 after U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services requested additional evidence.
According to a former official involved in reviewing the case that year. The card was never issued.
Omar remained legally married to Elmi after separating in 2011 while filing joint tax returns in 2014 and 2015 with Ahmed Hirsi. Her legal marriage to Hirsi occurred after the divorce from Elmi was final, though the two had a religious ceremony in 2002.
“Well, I understand they’re looking at her very carefully. I’ve always found her to be totally crooked personally, but that has nothing to do with me,” Trump said, commenting on the investigation, accusing his administration of targeting the lawmaker personally. “I think she’s a terrible person, just a complainer.”
Trump criticized Omar for coming from Somalia and then invoking the U.S. Constitution. He denied having any involvement in the investigation, saying responsibility rested with the Justice Department. “I have nothing to do with it.”
One source disputed earlier accounts that investigators had recovered discarded items to obtain swabs from Omar, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi or relatives. But even a confirmed biological relationship would not by itself establish that a marriage was entered into as a sham for immigration purposes.
Then-U.S. Attorney Andy Luger said in 2016 that his office was not investigating Ilhan Omar and did not request an investigation into her immigration status. A separate review by immigration officials in 2019 examined some of the same allegations but abandoned it after investigators found insufficient evidence of wrongdoing.
Federal authorities have since scrutinized Omar’s immigration records.
On October 13, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro confirmed on Fox News that her office was investigating Rep. Ilhan Omar’s financial disclosures, a separate inquiry from the federal investigation into her immigration records. According to her the search came after a judge found probable cause for the warrant.
“We’re looking at the facts,” Pirro said, adding that prosecutors would “follow them wherever they take us.”
“If there was a crime committed, it will be prosecuted.” Probable cause for a search is not a finding that the underlying allegations are true,” She added.
Amy Jeffress and Joshua Matz, said in a statement cited by the Post that there is “no legitimate basis for any suggestion that she has violated any law concerning her citizenship status.”
In a letter to the Justice Department, Omar’s attorneys demanded the return of seized property and alleged agents did not comply with a magistrate judge’s special requests for the search and acted close to an election, in violation of Department policy. They said:
“President Trump has made no secret of his desire to target Representative Omar for criminal investigation and deportation as retribution for her political advocacy.”
A Justice Department spokesperson said the letter was “riddled with false allegations and inaccuracies” and that department lawyers and law enforcement partners complied with all court orders, calling the leak of the letter “a publicity play.”
