Federal investigators quizzed Rep. Ilhan Omar’s sister last week after the Minnesota Democrat’s Washington, DC home was raided in connection with an ongoing immigration fraud investigation.
Sahra Noor voluntarily spoke with authorities at some point after the Oct. 12 search of the residence Omar shares with her husband, Tim Mynett, according to Fox News Digital, which cited three sources familiar with the investigation. It was not immediately clear what was discussed.
Noor was scheduled to appear at the University of Minnesota’s Rochester branch on Thursday of last week to promote her new book “Salt in the Snow: A Somali Immigrant Story.” A rep for a local bookstore that sponsored the event told Fox News Digital that Noor canceled due to a “family emergency.”
The Post reported Wednesday that the feds have obtained DNA samples in an effort to prove that Omar — and possibly other members of her family — defrauded immigration authorities.
One source said the DNA evidence was critical to proving an allegation that Omar married her brother, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, in 2009 to help him get a green card — which never came to fruition.
Two additional sources have indicated that the evidence gathered from Omar’s home, as well as that provided by whistleblowers and government records, has provided a solid basis to go before a grand jury to secure an indictment on charges of conspiracy to commit immigration fraud.
The immigration investigation into Omar is being run by the Minnesota US Attorney’s Office. DC US Attorney Jeanine Pirro is overseeing a separate probe into Omar and Mynett’s finances, including entries on House disclosure forms that resulted in Omar deflating her net worth by tens of millions of dollars in the last year due to an unexplained accounting “discrepancy.”
Omar has repeatedly denied any accusations of the rumored sibling marriage since 2016, when she first sought public office in Minnesota’s legislature.
Elmi, who divorced Omar in 2017, applied and then withdrew his application for a marriage-based green card in 2019, when US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) asked for additional information about his relationship with Omar, the Washington Post reported last week.
Trump administration border czar Tom Homan said Saturday that the feds have built “a strong case” that could lead to the denaturalization of Omar, who has lived in the US since her family emigrated from war-torn Somalia via Kenya in 1995.
Sources previously indicated that the immigration fraud at issue pertained to either Omar or her father, Nur Omar Mohamed, allegedly misrepresenting the future congresswoman’s birth date so that she could become a US citizen when her dad was naturalized in 2000.
Legal experts have noted the statute of limitations is lengthier for providing false information on immigration paperwork than for fraudulently marrying someone. A marriage fraud conviction also wouldn’t jeopardize Omar’s own citizenship in the same way as a case involving false statements.
Omar has been married three times and divorced twice. Her first marriage to Ahmed Hirsi wasn’t legally entered into until after her divorce from Elmi was finalized — despite her and Hirsi having an Islamic wedding ceremony in 2002.
The lawmaker gave birth to three children, the last of whom when she was legally married to Elmi. Documents previously reviewed by The Post indicate that Omar, Elmi and Hirsi appear to have all shared the same residence at one point.
Further complicating matters, Omar filed joint taxes with Hirsi in 2014 and 2015 while still legally married to Elmi, from whom she had separated in 2011.
Omar’s father, meanwhile, is associated with different surnames, including Nur Said Elmi Mohamed.
In 2019, Omar divorced Hirsi to marry Mynett, a political consultant who did work for her own campaign, following an alleged affair.
Last week, the congresswoman’s attorneys said in a letter to the Justice Department that they had “grave concerns” with the investigation and demanded the “immediate return” of all seized property.
The attorneys, Amy Jeffress and Joshua Matz, claimed that the feds didn’t comply with a magistrate judge’s “special requests” for executing the search warrant at Omar’s home and flouted longstanding DOJ policy by conducting it with just over three weeks to go before the midterm elections.
A Justice Department spokesperson replied that the letter was “riddled with false allegations and inaccuracies.”
“Our attorneys and law enforcement partners complied with all court orders and legal obligations, as they always do,” the rep added. “Leaking a letter to the press right after sending it is not good faith. It is a publicity play.”
