{"id":882354,"date":"2026-10-14T19:48:21","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T19:48:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/882354\/"},"modified":"2026-10-14T19:48:21","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T19:48:21","slug":"doj-seized-rep-ilhan-omars-phone-subpoenaed-family-members-in-immigration-status-probe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/882354\/","title":{"rendered":"DOJ seized Rep. Ilhan Omar\u2019s phone, subpoenaed family members in immigration status probe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Federal agents seized Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar\u2019s phone when they searched her Washington, D.C., home this week as <\/a>part of a federal investigation into potential immigration-related crimes, and have sent roughly a dozen subpoenas out in the case, according to two people familiar with the investigation.<\/p>\n

The possible charges cited by federal officials included conspiracy and making false statements in immigration paperwork, one of the people said. <\/p>\n

The search came just three weeks before the midterms, within the window of time when the Justice Department has typically avoided overt actions in criminal cases that could impact an election. And the seizure of the phone of a sitting member of Congress<\/a> would typically trigger a set of law enforcement protocols meant to ensure investigators aren\u2019t infringing upon the \u201cspeech or debate\u201d clause of the U.S. Constitution, which protects members of Congress from being questioned for their legislative acts.<\/p>\n

On Friday, roughly a dozen subpoenas were sent out in the case, including to her family members, the second person familiar with the investigation told NBC News. <\/p>\n

The congresswoman herself was not subpoenaed, the person said, adding that the orders seeking information are tied to a federal grand jury in Minnesota, Omar\u2019s home state. Federal agents also want to talk to Omar\u2019s sister but haven\u2019t reached her yet, the person said. <\/p>\n

The New York Times first reported<\/a> on the subpoenas.<\/p>\n

The investigation is being conducted by Homeland Security Investigations, the U.S. attorney in Minneapolis and the Justice Department<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Omar didn\u2019t respond to a request for comment. The Justice Department declined to comment. <\/p>\n

Omar said in a statement posted online<\/a> on Monday that she would not be silenced. <\/p>\n

\u201cMake no mistake: this is an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement. For ten years, Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns. This is just the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation,\u201d she wrote. <\/p>\n

One of the people familiar with the investigation said it involved whistleblowers, documents and witness testimony. The probe is examining matters surrounding Omar\u2019s immigration status, including \u2014 but not limited to \u2014 her birthdate. Omar, who was born in Somalia and moved to the United States with her family in the 1990s, was naturalized when she was 17 years old, meaning she was a juvenile and could be conferred citizenship through a parent.<\/p>\n

A criminal investigation could be complicated by the statute of limitations, which is typically five years, but investigators could look into Omar\u2019s or her family members\u2019 more recent actions that would fall within the statute of limitations. <\/p>\n

Omar, who is part of a group of progressive women in Congress known as \u201cthe Squad,\u201d<\/a> has been a frequent target of Trump\u2019s rhetoric<\/a> against her and other members\u2019 liberal positions, as well as Somali immigrants broadly.<\/p>\n

Asked Monday if he had been aware of the search in advance, Trump said the federal government was looking at Omar \u201cvery carefully.\u201d He also repeated his frequent attacks on her and Somalia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen she comes over here and she complains about our Constitution,\u201d Trump said. \u201cI think she\u2019s a terrible person, but that\u2019s really up to the DOJ.\u201d<\/p>\n

That evening, Trump also attacked Omar in remarks<\/a> at a rally he held for Republicans in Ohio. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what they\u2019re doing with it, but I can tell you this: She\u2019s a disaster,\u201d Trump said. \u201cShe comes in from a country without laws, without police, without military, where all they do is shoot each other, and she comes into our country and she says, \u2018I have a constitutional right.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin appeared to tease federal action against Omar<\/a> last month when he said \u201csomething\u2019s going to happen\u201d with her, but they were still investigating.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we actually move a case forward, it\u2019s not a political case,\u201d Mullin said. \u201cIt\u2019s an actual case because they did things wrong. If you decided to break the law or lie [about] the information you gave the United States to be able to come into the United States through either asylum or because you were just wanting to seek a better life, but you didn\u2019t tell us who you actually were, you lied about certain things about your application \u2014 those things, there\u2019s no expiration to that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Federal agents seized Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar\u2019s phone when they searched her Washington, D.C., home this week as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":882355,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,451,3,452,453],"class_list":["post-882354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=882354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/882355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=882354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=882354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=882354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}