Text Messages Leak - Ilhan Omar Is Done
A reported exchange between Rep. Ilhan Omar’s sister and others has become a key part of the federal investigation now reaching into the Minnesota Democrat’s Washington home.
The New York Post reported that investigators used messages recovered from Sahra Noor’s phone to help persuade a federal judge to authorize the search. Authorities had seized Noor’s phone earlier this year. The messages have not been made public, so their contents and significance remain unclear.
Homeland Security Investigations agents searched Omar’s residence Monday, taking her phone, passport, notebooks, and personal computers. The inquiry is examining whether Omar or relatives misrepresented information on immigration documents.
Omar’s family came to the United States as refugees from Somalia in 1995, according to the reporting. Omar has said she became a naturalized citizen in 2000, at age 17, through her father, Nur Omar Mohamed. Sources described the investigation as focused on records completed when she was a child.
The Justice Department confirmed that the search was conducted under a warrant. A Homeland Security Investigations spokesperson said agents “executed a judicially authorized search warrant secured by the Department of Justice.”
“This enforcement action is part of an ongoing federal investigation,” the spokesperson added.
The department’s statement confirms the search was authorized through the courts. It does not establish that fraud occurred or that anyone is guilty. No charges have been filed, and the case remains under investigation, with evidence expected to be presented to a federal grand jury in Minnesota. Several relatives have also received subpoenas.
According to the report, investigators previously collected DNA from discarded material in Omar’s trash. Former FBI special agent Tracy Walder discussed the tactic with NewsNation. The supplied reporting does not say whether a DNA comparison was conducted or what it found.
Omar’s office has accused the administration of political retaliation. Spokeswoman Jackie Rogers did not directly address Noor’s phone seizure, according to the report, but said: “This is politically motivated and an escalation of Trump’s personal vendetta against her lasting over a decade,”
Rogers also accused President Donald Trump of spreading falsehoods to justify what she called an abuse of power. Those are the congresswoman’s office’s claims about the administration’s motives; they do not resolve the questions investigators are examining. At the same time, a judge’s approval of a search warrant does not determine guilt.
Border czar Tom Homan has acknowledged the scrutiny and said he flagged the issue months ago. The investigation’s focus on family communications and immigration records now extends beyond Omar’s own devices and paperwork.
Noor, who now lives in Kenya, recently published a memoir titled Salt in the Snow: A Somali Immigrant Story. She canceled a Rochester book event scheduled for Thursday, citing a “family emergency,” according to the report. The available reporting does not establish that Noor knowingly provided evidence against Omar or voluntarily handed over her phone.
National Review has also recounted older allegations involving family identity and Omar’s 2009 marriage to Ahmed Nur Said Elmi. Omar has denied claims that Elmi was her brother or that the marriage was intended to obtain immigration benefits. Those longstanding allegations are separate from any charges in the current inquiry, Fox News reported.
Sources previously alleged to the Post that Omar’s father misrepresented his identity when entering the United States. That claim, like the other allegations under investigation, has not been established in court.