WASHINGTON — A court battle between federal prosecutors and news organizations suggests that the search warrant executed at “Squad” Rep. Ilhan Omar’s home may not yet have been fully completed.
Federal agents carried out the warrant at dawn on Oct. 12, raiding Omar’s Washington, DC, residence as part of an investigation into her immigration status. The operation came less than a month before the Nov. 3 election, making it a particularly striking development.
In arguing that records related to the warrant should remain sealed from several media organizations, US Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro pointed to concerns that the search process was still incomplete.
“[G]ood cause exists to extend these deadlines until after the subject search warrant has been fully executed,” Pirro and her team wrote in a court filing Wednesday.
The filing did not specify which parts of the warrant remained outstanding or indicate when federal authorities expected the search to be finished.
More than a dozen media organizations filed a petition last Thursday in the US District Court for the District of Columbia seeking access to the warrant documents amid heightened interest in the investigation involving Omar.
The court records also offer a potential clue about the government’s interest in Omar’s former marriage. They identify the congresswoman by the alias “Nur Said Elmi,” a name connected to her ex-husband, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi.
Public information about Elmi is limited. A Somali forum previously speculated, without providing verified evidence, that he was Omar’s brother and that the pair married for immigration purposes.
In a 2016 statement, Omar said she had applied for a marriage license with another former partner, Ahmed Abdisalan Hirsi, in 2002, when she was 19. She said they “never finalized the application and thus were never legally married.”
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Omar later married Hirsi in 2018. The couple divorced the following year.
During the intervening period, Omar was legally married to Elmi, a man some have speculated was her brother, from 2009 through 2017. Omar has said the couple separated “in our faith tradition” in 2011 but took years to complete the legal paperwork.
Omar has repeatedly rejected the unproven allegation that she married her brother. The theory holds that the marriage was intended to help him obtain a green card, though it ultimately did not succeed.
She has described the allegation as “insane” and dismissed it as a right-wing conspiracy.
Asked whether she had any biological relationship with Elmi, Omar gave a qualified response to MS NOW: “Not to my knowledge.”
“I don’t think that [US Attorneys] would make up names,” Blanche told reporters Thursday when questioned about the alias “Nur Said Elmi” appearing in records connected to Omar.
The Post previously reported that federal investigators possess DNA evidence they believe could establish whether Omar committed immigration fraud. One source said the evidence might also address whether Elmi was her brother, though that claim has not been proven publicly.
The search of Omar’s home is believed to relate to documents she submitted while seeking US citizenship. Born in Somalia, Omar arrived in the United States as a refugee in the mid-1990s. Records listed her as 17 when her father became a US citizen in 2000.
Because she was under 18, Omar obtained citizenship through a process that did not require additional complications. The investigation is reportedly examining whether she was actually 18 when the paperwork was filed.
Omar has denied any wrongdoing and accused the Trump administration of using the legal system as a political weapon against her.