Rep. Ilhan Omar says she must leave her D.C. home after federal search and threats

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) said she will have to move out of her Washington, D.C., home because of threats she has received since federal agents searched it last week. "Obviously, I can't continue to live there," she told MS NOW's Chris Hayes in a Wednesday interview. She said her address has been public and that she deals with death threats, making it no longer feasible to stay there with her children visiting. [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]

Omar said she woke around 6 a.m. on Oct. 12 to agents from Homeland Security Investigations pounding on the front and back doors. She said she, her husband and their 20-year-old son were inside, and that she had slept only about 2½ hours after returning from a trip. "I thought something was on fire," she said. NBC News reported that she was confused to see HSI agents because they often focus on issues such as human trafficking, drugs, cybersecurity and terrorism. [ 2 , 3 ]

According to The Hill, the agents gave her a search warrant before going room by room and seizing 17 items, including her phone and other electronics. Newsweek reported Omar's account that 15 to 25 agents searched for four to five hours, and that the items included an older phone, her daughter's first phone, a recently replaced phone, keepsakes, a camera dating to the 1960s, a Somali phrase book and notebooks. She said she could not call her attorney until about an hour into the operation. She also called the agents "decent" and said they put everything back in place. [ 1 , 2 ]

The Hill reported that Trump and his administration have claimed that Omar's father lied about her age when she obtained U.S. citizenship in 2000 after the family emigrated from Somalia. Omar has denied the allegations and, in a social media post after the raid, accused the administration of a "campaign of political intimidation". Newsweek described her as accusing the administration of initiating the raid to intimidate voters. In the interview she asked why, if officials were confident she had committed a crime, they were not saying they would subpoena people or use a grand jury to find evidence that would lead to an indictment. [ 1 , 2 ]

NBC News reported that the search was part of a criminal investigation that has alarmed Justice Department veterans, who cited its closeness to the midterm elections. A person familiar with the investigation told NBC News that possible charges include conspiracy and making false statements in immigration paperwork. The Hill said the Washington Post reported last week that federal officials under the first Trump administration reviewed Omar's immigration records in 2019 but found no evidence of fraud. [ 1 , 3 ]

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday, Trump called Omar a "sick, very dishonest person … who hates our country," The Hill reported. The outlet added that the president has for years attacked Omar in posts and speeches for her political views and background. [ 1 ]