Exclusive: Judge limited Justice Department access to Rep. Ilhan Omar’s records in sprawling immigration fraud probe

J. Scott Applewhite/AP

The Trump administration pushed for an unusually aggressive search of Rep. Ilhan Omar ’s house in recent days in an immigration fraud probe that targets the congresswoman, possible false statements made on government documents, and a potential conspiracy, according to multiple people familiar with the investigation.

Prosecutors, however, first had to contend with a federal magistrate judge, in a prolonged back-and-forth that hasn’t previously been reported. Judge Matthew Sharbaugh of the DC District Court ultimately limited how the Justice Department could access Omar’s documents in Monday’s search, before he would approve the warrant, because of her role as a member of Congress and the Constitutional protections that affords, multiple people familiar with the investigation told CNN.

The investigators’ inquiries that prompted the search include whether Omar or her now-deceased father lied about her age when she obtained citizenship in 2000, claiming she was a minor when she was of adult age.

Omar emigrated to the US as a Somalian refugee around the age of 12 and became a citizen in 2000, according to people familiar with Omar’s situation.

One source told CNN the government could try to expand the investigation into a wider conspiracy case and try to investigate if this was deception and the purposeful falsification of information over years by a larger group of individuals.

Federal agents raid Rep. Ilhan Omar’s home two days after President Trump lashed out at her on stage

Omar has been under criminal investigations for years — including before Trump took office last year. But the Trump administration has pushed further with the belief that she has repeated false statements when filling out government documents, such as a passport, in recent years. That is what led to the search on Monday, the sources say.

The search of her home in DC was highly unusual for its timing less than a month before Election Day voting ends, including while Omar is running for reelection as a Democrat in Minnesota.

The effort is also the federal push this month has also been unusual for its attempt to access a member of Congress’ records — the type of criminal investigative work that Republicans this year have made into a political firestorm for past administrations.

As part of the renewed probe, at least a dozen subpoenas were issued beginning last Friday to witnesses, most of them relatives, according to people familiar with the investigation.

Government records and archives in Somalia are notoriously unreliable and hard to access due to years of conflict and disconnected government entities.

J. Scott Applewhite/AP/File

In recent weeks, the Justice Department argued for broad access to records that Omar kept at her home in Washington, the sources said.

The Justice Department has argued that with Omar there was little need for sequestering the records taken from her home on Monday.

But the judge who ultimately approved the search told the Justice Department that wasn’t possible under the law, the sources said. Sharbaugh of the DC District Court told prosecutors from DC they would need to set up a process for screening the records to protect Omar’s legislative work from investigators.

In DC, the courts have upheld expansive protections around records of legislative work for members of Congress under the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause.

The multi-day back-and-forth between the judge and the Justice Department in recent days hasn’t been previously reported.

Annabelle Gordon/Reuters

It may now have vast implications for both federal investigators that are looking to potentially charge Omar with a crime and for her campaign.

The Justice Department’s approach to the search also was especially notable because Omar, a US citizen originally from Somalia, is a high-profile member of the group of female progressives known as “The Squad,” a top and frequent political target of President Donald Trump and is running for re-election to Congress in Minnesota, where voting in the mid-term elections has already begun.

Omar has publicly called the search of her home a political attack prompted by the hatred that Trump and Republicans have for her.

“This is an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement,” Omar said in a post on social media on Monday. “For ten years, Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns. This is just the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation.”

She has denied any wrongdoing and hasn’t been charged with a crime. An attorney for Omar didn’t respond to multiple requests for this story.

Investigators are looking into an unsubstantiated claim around whether her now ex-husband, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, was her brother, in order to get him citizenship — a claim that has been repeated by Trump and which Omar has called “bigoted lies.”

Even if substantiated, the statute of limitations would have long run out over any crime, and it’s unclear what role that would play in the inquiry, informed sources told CNN.

No charges were brought by the Biden-era investigators and the case around Omar didn’t progress nearly as far as the current Trump-era investigators have taken it, several people familiar with the investigation said.

Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

The case was reopened last year and is now being led by prosecutors in the deputy attorney general’s office and in the US attorney’s office in Minneapolis, the sources said. The US Attorney’s Office in Washington, DC, has also been involved.

Any new case, if charged, would likely be complicated by Trump’s rhetoric against Omar, over many years and some of it being racist. Vice President JD Vance has also talked about discussing the case with White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, and White House border czar Tom Homan has repeatedly talked on Fox News about an ongoing investigation into Omar.

“If someone committed immigration violation, someone committed marriage fraud or anything like that, regardless if they’re a congressman or not, no one’s above the law, so I’ll leave it at that,” Homan said in a September interview after mentioning an “ongoing criminal investigation” around Omar.

A separate investigation of possible financial misconduct, including around campaign finance, also continues in the DC US attorney’s office.

DC US Attorney Jeanine Pirro was asked on Tuesday on Fox News about Omar’s financial disclosures that House ethics investigators previously scrutinized.

“That is the subject of an investigation as well,” Pirro said. “We’re looking at the facts. Based upon the facts we will follow them wherever they take us.”

Since the DC federal court’s oversight of the search of Omar’s home, any criminal investigation that would rely on her own records may be slowed down substantially, and has already raised concerns about Justice Department integrity and politicization.

Judges in the DC District Court have grown increasingly skeptical of the Trump administration’s approach to Constitutional protections in criminal cases, especially when those cases appear politically charged.

At the same time, Republicans have been furious with the Justice Department under President Joe Biden for seeking Congress members’ communications in past criminal investigations. Republicans o Capitol Hill and Trump have been particularly critical of former special counsel Jack Smith obtaining secrecy orders when Smith’s office subpoenaed phone companies for call logs of members around the January 6, 2021, US Capitol attack conspiracy investigation.

Generally, the Justice Department avoids overt investigative activity that could affect an election within 60 days of Election Day.

In this case, however, top Justice officials signed off on Monday’s HSI search.

J. Scott Applewhite/美联社

据多位知情人士透露，特朗普政府近日对众议员伊尔汗·奥马尔的住所进行了异常激进的搜查，这是针对这位女议员的移民欺诈调查的一部分，调查内容包括她可能在政府文件中作出的虚假陈述以及潜在的阴谋。

然而，检方首先不得不与一名联邦地方法官进行一番漫长的拉锯战，此前并未见诸报端。据多位知情人士向CNN透露，华盛顿特区地方法院法官马修·沙博格最终限制了司法部在周一的搜查中获取奥马尔文件的方式，才批准了搜查令，理由是奥马尔是国会议员，享有宪法赋予的保护。

调查人员的调查引发了这次搜查，其中包括奥马尔或她已故的父亲是否在 2000 年奥马尔获得公民身份时谎报了她的年龄，声称她当时是未成年人，而实际上她已经成年。

据了解奥马尔情况的人士透露，奥马尔大约在 12 岁时作为索马里难民移民到美国，并于 2000 年成为美国公民。

一位消息人士告诉 CNN，政府可能会尝试将调查范围扩大到更广泛的阴谋案件，并试图调查这是否是更大群体多年来蓄意欺骗和捏造信息的欺骗行为。

在特朗普总统在舞台上猛烈抨击众议员伊尔汗·奥马尔两天后，联邦特工突袭了她的住所。

奥马尔多年来一直受到刑事调查，甚至在特朗普去年就任总统之前就已开始接受调查。但特朗普政府加大了调查力度，认为她近年来在填写护照等政府文件时多次作虚假陈述。消息人士称，这正是周一搜查行动的起因。

在距离选举日投票结束不到一个月之际，对她在华盛顿特区的住所进行搜查，这非常不寻常，而且奥马尔当时正在明尼苏达州以民主党人的身份竞选连任。

本月联邦政府的这项举措也不同寻常，因为它试图获取国会议员的记录——这种刑事调查工作，共和党人今年曾将其炒作成一场政治风暴，而过去几届政府都对此束手无策。

据知情人士透露，作为重新调查的一部分，从上周五开始，至少向证人发出了十几份传票，其中大部分是亲属。

由于多年的冲突和政府机构各自为政，索马里的政府记录和档案出了名的不可靠且难以获取。

J. Scott Applewhite/美联社/档案照片

消息人士称，最近几周，司法部一直在争取广泛查阅奥马尔在华盛顿家中保存的记录。

司法部辩称，对于奥马尔而言，没有必要将周一从她家中搜出的记录封存起来。

但消息人士称，最终批准搜查的法官告诉司法部，根据法律，这是不可能的。哥伦比亚特区地方法院的沙博法官告诉哥伦比亚特区的检察官，他们需要建立一套审查记录的程序，以保护奥马尔的立法工作不被调查人员发现。

在华盛顿特区，法院根据宪法的言论或辩论条款，维护了对国会议员立法工作记录的广泛保护。

近日，法官与司法部之间持续数日的交锋此前并未被报道。

安娜贝尔·戈登/路透社

此事可能对联邦调查人员（他们可能正在考虑以犯罪手段指控奥马尔）和她的竞选活动产生重大影响。

司法部采取的搜查方式也特别引人注目，因为奥马尔是美国公民，原籍索马里，她是被称为“四人帮”（The Squad）的女性进步团体中的知名成员，该团体是唐纳德·特朗普总统的主要政治攻击目标之一，她正在竞选明尼苏达州的国会连任，而该州的中期选举投票已经开始。

奥马尔公开称，对她住所的搜查是出于特朗普和共和党人对她的仇恨而发起的政治攻击。

奥马尔周一在社交媒体上发帖称：“这是企图打击政治对手，并利用联邦执法部门作为武器。十年来，特朗普一直用毫无根据的谎言和抹黑运动攻击我。这只是他政治恐吓行动的最新升级。”

她否认有任何不当行为，也未被指控犯罪。奥马尔的律师没有回复记者的多次置评请求。

调查人员正在调查一项未经证实的说法，即奥马尔的前夫艾哈迈德·努尔·赛义德·埃尔米是否是她的兄弟，目的是为了让他获得公民身份——特朗普重复了这一说法，而奥马尔称之为“偏执的谎言”。

据 CNN 报道，知情人士透露，即使指控属实，任何犯罪的诉讼时效也早已过了，目前还不清楚这会在调查中起到什么作用。

几位熟悉调查情况的人士表示，拜登时代的调查人员没有提出任何指控，围绕奥马尔的案件进展远不如现任特朗普时代的调查人员所取得的进展。

Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

消息人士称，该案去年重新启动，目前由司法部副部长办公室和明尼阿波利斯联邦检察官办公室的检察官共同牵头。华盛顿特区联邦检察官办公室也参与其中。

如果对奥马尔提起新的指控，特朗普多年来针对她的言论（其中一些带有种族歧视色彩）可能会使案件变得复杂。副总统万斯也曾表示将与白宫副幕僚长斯蒂芬·米勒讨论此案，而白宫边境事务负责人汤姆·霍曼也多次在福克斯新闻上谈到对奥马尔的调查。

“如果有人违反了移民法，有人犯了婚姻欺诈罪或类似罪行，无论他们是不是国会议员，没有人可以凌驾于法律之上，所以我就说到这里吧。”霍曼在9月份的一次采访中提到了围绕奥马尔的“正在进行的刑事调查”后说道。

美国华盛顿特区检察官办公室还在继续对可能存在的财务不当行为（包括竞选资金方面的不当行为）进行单独调查。

周二，福克斯新闻就奥马尔的财务披露问题询问了华盛顿特区联邦检察官珍妮·皮罗，此前众议院道德调查人员曾对此进行过审查。

“这也是我们正在调查的对象，”皮罗说。“我们正在调查事实。根据事实，我们会追查到底。”

由于华盛顿特区联邦法院监督了对奥马尔住所的搜查，任何依赖她本人记录的刑事调查都可能大幅放缓，并且已经引发了人们对司法部诚信和政治化的担忧。

华盛顿特区地方法院的法官们对特朗普政府在刑事案件中对待宪法保护的态度越来越持怀疑态度，尤其是在这些案件似乎带有政治色彩的情况下。

与此同时，共和党人对拜登总统领导下的司法部在过去刑事调查中索取国会议员的通信记录的做法感到愤怒。国会山的共和党人和特朗普尤其批评前特别检察官杰克·史密斯，称其办公室在2021年1月6日美国国会大厦袭击阴谋调查期间，曾向电话公司发出传票，要求提供议员的通话记录，并以此为由申请了保密令。

一般来说，司法部会在选举日后 60 天内避免进行可能影响选举的公开调查活动。

然而，在本案中，司法部高层官员批准了周一的国土安全调查局搜查行动。