The federal investigation into Rep. Ilhan Omar has entered a stunning new phase.
Federal prosecutors now reportedly have DNA evidence they believe could help establish whether Omar committed immigration fraud and whether the man she married in 2009 was actually her brother.
The bombshell report landed Monday afternoon.
The New York Post reports that people familiar with the years-long criminal probe say investigators have used whistleblowers, government records, and newly obtained DNA while examining allegations involving Omar and members of her family.
One source told the outlet that the DNA evidence could be critical to testing the allegation that Omar’s 2009 marriage to Ahmed Nur Said Elmi was a sibling marriage intended to help him obtain a green card. The Post says that green-card effort never came to fruition.
The timing and source of the DNA collection remain unclear.
Two additional sources told the paper that the Oct. 12 search of Omar’s Washington home, combined with the DNA and other evidence, may give prosecutors a basis to present a conspiracy case to a grand jury.
That is a serious report, but it is still a report based on unnamed sources. The Justice Department has not publicly released a DNA result, charged Omar, or established in court that Elmi is her brother.
Omar has repeatedly denied the sibling-marriage allegation and says the investigation is politically motivated.
The Associated Press independently confirmed last week that federal authorities seized Omar’s phone and issued more than a dozen grand-jury subpoenas, including subpoenas to some of her relatives. The AP reported that a Minnesota grand jury is gathering evidence as authorities examine possible fraud in immigration paperwork.
That reporting also confirmed the search of Omar’s Washington home and quoted D.C. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro as saying that several investigations are underway. Pirro said her office is separately examining questions involving Omar’s financial disclosures.
The AP said the scope of the immigration investigation was still unclear, but Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin had publicly pointed to possible crimes involving the family’s immigration paperwork. The search took place only weeks before the November midterms, a timing Democrats have sharply criticized.
Omar called the search an attempt to weaponize federal law enforcement against a political opponent. Authorities, meanwhile, have continued collecting evidence through the Minnesota grand jury.
The DNA report immediately drew a blunt reaction from Juanita Broaddrick.
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The allegation at the center of the DNA report has circulated for years.
Omar married Elmi in 2009 and divorced him in 2017. The Post says Elmi later applied for a marriage-based green card but withdrew the application in 2019 after U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services requested additional evidence concerning the marriage.
The same report notes that Omar filed joint tax returns with Ahmed Hirsi in 2014 and 2015 while she was still legally married to Elmi. Omar and Hirsi had held a Muslim wedding ceremony years earlier, but their legal marriage came after her divorce from Elmi.
Those facts have fueled suspicion, but suspicion is not proof. The first Trump administration examined the sibling-marriage claim and did not find enough evidence to pursue it at that time.
The current inquiry is broader. Investigators are reportedly examining whether Omar or her late father made false statements in immigration records, and whether any alleged conduct formed part of a continuing conspiracy.
Omar’s lawyers have demanded the return of property seized from her home and said there is no legitimate basis to suggest that she violated the law concerning her citizenship. The Justice Department says its lawyers and law-enforcement partners complied with all court orders and legal obligations.
A separate financial inquiry is adding even more pressure.
House Oversight Chairman James Comer said Monday that a former winery tied to Omar’s husband sold investors barrels that allegedly contained no wine.
The Associated Press previously confirmed that Comer requested records from Omar’s husband, Timothy Mynett, concerning a winery and an investment firm whose reported values rose sharply between 2023 and 2024. Omar’s spokesperson called that inquiry a political stunt, and the AP reported at the time that there was no evidence of wrongdoing by Omar.
The criminal immigration probe and the congressional financial inquiry are separate matters. Neither should be blurred into a conviction before prosecutors have proved a case.
But the federal investigation itself is real, active, and expanding. If prosecutors can authenticate the DNA evidence and connect it to false immigration filings or a continuing conspiracy, the consequences for a sitting member of Congress could be enormous.
Americans deserve the full truth. No member of Congress is above the law, and no investigation this consequential should be reduced to either a partisan shield or a political show.
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[ H/T WLT Report ]
