An FBI investigation conducted during Barack Obama’s presidency uncovered evidence that appeared to support allegations that Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar entered a sham marriage with a man suspected of being her brother, according to an explosive new report.
The Minnesota congresswoman has faced claims for years that she married British citizen Ahmed Nur Said Elmi in 2009 to help him secure a green card. The allegations were previously reported by the Daily Mail.
Omar has repeatedly rejected the accusations, describing them as a right-wing conspiracy theory. President Donald Trump’s administration has now opened a new investigation into her immigration history.
The New York Times has reported that FBI and Homeland Security agents examined the alleged sham marriage in 2016 and found evidence that investigators believed could indicate fraud.
However, the inquiry ultimately stalled after prosecutors determined that any potential criminal charges were likely barred by the five-year statute of limitations.
A separate examination of Omar’s immigration records in 2019, during Trump’s first administration, produced a different assessment.
Three former immigration officials told The Washington Post that investigators found insufficient evidence of wrongdoing and uncovered no issues with Omar’s naturalization.
That review considered several of the same allegations now receiving renewed attention, including questions about Omar’s marriage, her age and her father’s immigration records.
An Obama-era federal investigation found evidence suggesting that Ilhan Omar’s long-disputed marriage to her former husband, British citizen Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, may have been a sham
Several current and former law enforcement officials told The New York Times that investigators examining the Minnesota congresswoman’s marriage in 2016 found evidence supporting claims that Elmi may have been her brother
The marriage application completed by Ilhan Omar and Ahmed Elmi. A Christian minister officiated at the ceremony in Eden Prairie, Minnesota
Omar has categorically denied any wrongdoing and continued to dismiss the long-running marriage allegations as a conspiracy theory.
In an interview with MS NOW’s Chris Hayes last week, she called the claim that she married her brother “insane,” saying it began with a blog before being promoted by right-wing conspiracy theorists.
Asked by Hayes whether her former husband could have been related to her, Omar responded: “Not to my knowledge.”
President Trump seized on the remark at a rally in Iowa on October 22, ridiculing Omar for saying she did not know whether her former husband was related to her.
“She didn’t know whether or not she married her brother. She wasn’t sure,” Trump told the crowd, describing it as “one of the worst answers I think I’ve ever heard.”
He also called on Omar to resign from Congress, alleging that she had used a false name when she was sworn in.
Trump pointed to a Justice Department filing that referred to Omar by the name “Ilhan Nur Said Elmi.”
Investigators are also reviewing the circumstances surrounding Omar’s family’s arrival in the United States in 1995, including whether her father, Nur Omar Mohamed, provided inaccurate information on immigration documents.
Omar left her first husband before marrying Ahmed Elmi in 2009. Source: Ahmed Nur Said Elmi/Facebook
Ilhan Omar (center) as a young girl. At the center of the immigration probe is Omar’s birth year, which has appeared as both 1981 and 1982 in official records. Her staff had it changed from 1981 to 1982 on her Minnesota legislature biography in May 2019.
Rep. Ilhan Omar has claimed she obtained US citizenship through her Somali-born father, Nur Omar Mohamed, who died in 2020, though no records of her or her father’s naturalization have been found
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According to The Washington Post, investigators are focusing on whether Omar or her father intentionally misstated her birth date to ensure she qualified for US citizenship through her father when he became a naturalized citizen in 2000.
Authorities are also examining whether her father omitted or misrepresented information about his past military service in Somalia.
Omar was born in Somalia in 1982 and arrived in the United States with her family in 1995, when she was around 12 or 13.
The current inquiry includes questions about whether her age was accurately recorded in immigration documents, an issue that officials reviewing her file in 2019 said they could not conclusively resolve because birth records for refugees from Somalia were often unreliable.
The scrutiny also extends to her marriage history.
Public records show Omar legally married Elmi in February 2009.
The pair separated in 2011, but did not legally divorce until December 2017.
Elmi had previously sought to move his marriage-based green card from conditional to permanent status.
The latest scrutiny comes weeks after federal agents searched Omar’s Washington, DC, home on October 12 as part of a criminal investigation
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has also weighed in on the federal investigation, saying investigators were pursuing the case and indicating that it could be presented to a grand jury
According to a former immigration official cited by The Washington Post, authorities requested additional evidence because of concerns about the marriage’s validity, but Elmi withdrew the application after that request.
The latest scrutiny comes weeks after federal agents searched Omar’s Washington, DC, home on October 12 as part of a criminal investigation.
Agents seized her phone and passport, and authorities have issued more than a dozen grand jury subpoenas connected to the inquiry, including subpoenas to some of her relatives.
The Justice Department has not announced charges against the congresswoman in connection with the allegations.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has also weighed in on the federal investigation, saying investigators were pursuing the case and indicating that it could be presented to a grand jury.
In an October 16 interview on The Charlie Kirk Show, Mullin said investigators expected to take the case to a grand jury, but his comments did not establish that Omar had committed a crime or that prosecutors had decided to charge her.
Omar has also accused the Trump administration of using the investigation to intimidate her because of her outspoken criticism of the president.
The congresswoman said she believed the search of her home was politically motivated, pointing to Trump’s repeated public attacks against her.
Trump has denied involvement in the search, while administration officials have maintained that law enforcement decisions are based on the facts and the law.
The Justice Department has also sought to keep the application for the search warrant sealed while investigators review the evidence seized from Omar’s home.
Prosecutors said releasing the material at this stage could jeopardize the ongoing investigation and that they had not yet decided whether to bring charges or whom to charge.
The investigation has raised questions about the timing of the search, which took place just weeks before the November 3 midterm elections.