Barack Obama’s own administration reportedly opened the first federal investigation into the long-running allegations surrounding Rep. Ilhan Omar’s former marriage.
And according to the new reporting, federal investigators did not walk away empty-handed.
The FBI and Department of Homeland Security reportedly began looking into the matter in the summer of 2016—while Obama was still president and Omar was running for the Minnesota House.
That revelation lands with a thud after Obama recently accused the Trump administration of using the federal government to persecute a “law-abiding elected official.”
The New York Times reported that the Obama-era inquiry examined whether Omar’s 2009 legal marriage to Ahmed Nur Said Elmi was fraudulent and whether Elmi may have been her brother.
Several current and former law-enforcement officials told the Times that investigators found some evidence supporting the sham-marriage theory. The Times reported that prosecutors ultimately declined to bring a potential felony case because they believed the five-year statute of limitations had expired.
The reported evidence never produced a conviction or even public charges. But it tells a very different story from the claim that the entire matter began as a Trump-era political invention.
It means federal authorities were examining the allegations before Donald Trump entered the White House.
Fox News Digital confirmed that the inquiry began in 2016 under Obama. Fox further reported that a Minnesota U.S. attorney appointed by President Joe Biden later shut down the probe in 2021, citing a source familiar with the matter.
Fox said the reported 2016 inquiry involved both the FBI and DHS. Its account says the matter is now back under scrutiny as part of a broader federal investigation into possible false statements connected to Omar’s immigration and naturalization records.
The revived investigation has included a court-authorized search of Omar’s Washington residence, the seizure of electronic devices and her passport, and subpoenas directed at relatives.
Omar has not been charged with marriage fraud. She has repeatedly denied that Elmi is her brother and says the current investigation is a political attack.
But the reported Obama-era timeline creates an obvious problem for Obama’s own public defense.
After federal agents searched Omar’s home on October 12, Obama claimed the Trump administration was bringing “the full weight of the federal government” down on her because she criticized President Trump.
Obama called Omar a law-abiding elected official and portrayed the current investigation as selective political targeting.
Now the public is learning that federal agencies under his own administration reportedly investigated the same core marriage allegation a decade ago.
The Associated Press independently reported that federal authorities seized Omar’s phone and issued more than a dozen grand-jury subpoenas, including subpoenas to members of her family.
AP said the grand jury is collecting evidence as authorities investigate possible fraud in immigration paperwork. The precise scope remains partly sealed, and the Justice Department has not publicly laid out a complete theory of the case.
Homeland Security officials have indicated that the inquiry concerns Omar’s family immigration history. Omar says neither she nor her father committed immigration fraud.
Those distinctions matter. A search warrant means a judge found probable cause to believe evidence of a crime could be found; it does not establish guilt, and a grand-jury investigation does not guarantee charges.
There is also a messy public record surrounding what happened in 2016.
The Minnesota Star Tribune reported at the time that then-U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger publicly denied his office was investigating Omar. The paper said Omar maintained that she had an Islamic marriage to Ahmed Hirsi beginning in 2002, separated from him, legally married Elmi in 2009, and later reconciled with Hirsi.
Omar described the brother-marriage allegation as a disgusting lie. She and Elmi legally divorced in 2017, and she legally married Hirsi the following year.
The new reporting suggests investigators were nevertheless examining the marriage allegation through federal channels that did not produce a public prosecution.
That helps explain why the story never fully disappeared—and why the current investigation is hunting for records, witnesses and biological evidence rather than relying on internet speculation alone.
There are still major unanswered questions.
What exactly did investigators find in 2016? Who made the decision to stop pursuing the case?
What did the government know by 2021? And does the present investigation have materially new evidence that changes the legal picture?
Those answers will have to come from documents, testimony and evidence—not partisan slogans.
One point is already difficult to dismiss: the federal interest in Omar’s marriage history did not begin with President Trump.
It began, according to the new reporting, under Barack Obama.
This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.
The post Obama-Era FBI Opened Ilhan Omar Brother-Marriage Probe — Then Biden Appointee Shut It Down: Report appeared first on 100PercentFedUp.com.
Continue reading...
[H/T 100PercentFedUp]
