DOJ declines to release search warrant in Ilhan Omar investigation
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The Justice Department declined to unseal court documents in the investigation into Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.
Several news outlets asked a federal court to unseal the search warrant that gave federal agents permission to search Omar’s Washington, D.C., home earlier this month.
In a court filing this week, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro argued that the warrant should remain sealed. She said it hasn’t been fully executed yet, and wrote that no law requires the court to unseal documents during an active investigation.
“Unsealing everything now … imperils the investigation, and publicly exposes suspected criminal wrongdoing,” Pirro wrote.
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Pirro said the government can reconsider unsealing the warrant once it’s been carried out.
She also noted the government “expects that the warrant will be fully executed in short order.” Decisions on whether to bring criminal charges in the investigation would follow.
Federal authorities also subpoenaed several people in the investigation, including some of Omar’s relatives.
Federal officials have said the search of Omar’s home by Homeland Security Investigations agents was part of a criminal investigation. Outlets including the Wall Street Journal have reported the investigation is looking into Omar’s immigration history and could seek to challenge her citizenship.
Omar’s family left Somalia when she was a child and spent several years in a refugee camp in Kenya before coming to the U.S. in the 1990s. She became a citizen in 2000, receiving citizenship via her father’s application because she was 17 years old at the time. That detail is at the center of speculation; some officials have claimed that she was 18, and that her father lied about her age. If she had been 18 at the time, she would have needed to apply for citizenship on her own.
Omar called the search and the investigation a campaign of intimidation by President Donald Trump, who has in the past called for Omar to be deported. She has denied any wrongdoing in her immigration proceedings. Her legal team called on the Department of Justice to return items seized in the search, including her cell phone.
A federal judge will need to rule on whether to unseal the search warrant. If a judge does decide to unseal it, Pirro could ask the court to allow time for the U.S. to ask for an emergency stay.
