Vice President JD Vance recently sparked interest with his comments regarding Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, referring to her marriage as “fishy” and indicating that she is under federal investigation.

While standing in for Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt during her maternity leave, Vance addressed the media from the White House briefing room podium, handling a variety of questions from reporters.

In his role as the head of the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, Vance provided updates on their efforts, including an investigation into a COVID-era scam involving businesses in Minnesota.

Furthermore, Vance seemingly confirmed that Congresswoman Omar, a Democrat from Minnesota, is indeed the subject of a federal investigation.

Omar has faced scrutiny regarding her marriage, financial matters, and possible connections to fraud schemes based in Minnesota.

The progressive has long been plagued by allegations that she married her brother, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi in 2009 while she was legally married to Ahmed Hirsi. 

The Congresswoman has long denied the claims, calling them absurd and rooted in Islamophobia. It is unclear if the DOJ is investigating her past marriage to Elmi. 

‘I don’t want to prejudge an investigation,’ Vance said. ‘I mean, you read the things about Ilhan Omar, and about who she married, and whether she didn’t marry this person or that person.’

Vice President JD Vance said that the Department of Justice is investigating Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar on Tuesday

Minnesota Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has been a frequent foil for the Trump administration. The President has repeatedly lambasted her over the years 

‘It certainly seems like something fishy is there, but everybody’s entitled to equal justice under the laws. So, we’re gonna investigate it. We’re gonna take a look at it.’ 

Previously Vance said that Omar ‘definitely committed immigration fraud’ while speaking with conservative commentator Benny Johnson in March. 

He appeared to walk back that claim, in part, by claiming that the DOJ will determine whether a crime was committed. 

‘If we think that there’s a crime, we’re gonna prosecute that crime, and that’s something the Department of Justice is looking at right now,’ he said on Tuesday. 

Omar has also been linked to individuals prosecuted for a major fraud scheme in Minnesota regarding a COVID-era program that received $250 million from the federal government.  

Salim Ahmed Said, the owner of Safari Restaurant, which is where Omar held her 2018 campaign victory party, was convicted on 21 counts including wire fraud and money laundering in March 2025. 

He allegedly pocketed $5 million from the scheme funneling money through Feeding Our Future, a COVID-era food program, for his own enrichments rather than for child nutrition. 

‘She [Omar] has been at the center of a lot of the worst fraudsters at the center of the Somali community,’ Vance previously told Johnson in March. 

Omar and her current husband Timothy Mynett at a Washington, DC, event in September 2025

Omar held her 2018 election party at this restaurant owned by a convicted fraudster 

Omar, who has since remarried to Timothy Mynett, has also raised eyebrows over her family wine business that has skyrocketed in value in a single year. 

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, a Republican, announced in February that his panel will probe Mynett, a political consultant and entrepreneur.

In a letter to Mynett, Comer asked for financial information regarding Rose Lake Capital LLC, his business consulting firm, and eStCru LLC, a wine company, in which Omar holds a stake.

According to Omar’s federal financial disclosures, Rose Lake went from being valued between $51,000 to $250,000 in 2023 to $5 million to $25 million in 2024.

The increase in value from $250,000 to $5 million, the minimum the LLC could’ve risen in a single year, according to the forms, is 1,900 percent.

Meanwhile, eStCru LLC ballooned in valuation from $15,000 to $50,000 in 2023 to $1 million to $5 million in 2024, also a 1,900 percent increase.

Prosecutors in Lake County, Illinois, have recently dropped charges against a man involved in a tragic accident, after uncovering flaws in marijuana DUI testing. This development follows revelations by the I-Team regarding unreliable test results that have had significant legal repercussions.

The state’s attorney in Lake County described the evidence in this case as “scientifically erroneous,” leading to the dismissal of charges against the driver implicated in a 2023 crash. This incident, which resulted in the death of a Skokie man, was initially based on questionable lab findings that had been scrutinized by the I-Team more than a year prior.

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The accident occurred on the morning of May 21, 2023, when Derek Drake, a resident of Lake Villa, attempted a left turn, colliding with a motorcycle operated by 56-year-old David Paul of Skokie. Sadly, Paul succumbed to his injuries at the scene in Round Lake Beach.

Drake had recently completed a supervised period for a previous DUI offense involving alcohol, as indicated by court documents. In the case at hand, blood tests from the University of Illinois Chicago’s Analytical Forensic Testing Laboratory reported that Drake had a Delta 9 THC level more than twice the legal limit. He acknowledged using marijuana from a bong the evening before the incident.

In this latest case, blood test results from the University of Illinois Chicago’s Analytical Forensic Testing Laboratory showed more than double the legal limit of Delta 9 THC, the primary intoxicating compound in marijuana. He admitted to smoking marijuana from a bong the night before.

“Had the prosecutor known that the science was bad, this prosecutor never would have charged this person,” said Ron Safer, a former federal prosecutor now practicing with Riley, Safer, Holmes & Cancil Law.

Safer is not involved in any of the UIC lab cases but told the I-Team it is vital that state’s attorneys take action when fundamental forensic errors are presented in court with devastating consequences.

“That is a powerful moment for a defense attorney, almost impossible to overcome, and to hear that that was based on flawed data and flawed processes is devastating to the justice system,” Safer said.

The I-Team has followed the fallout from the UIC faulty testing.

At issue are flawed methodologies that measured THC levels incorrectly, potentially flagging drivers as above the legal limits. Thousands of court cases across metro Chicago could be impacted.

After ABC7’s reporting first shed light on bad forensic science presented in court for cannabis DUIs, state’s attorneys in DuPage and Cook counties, and now, Lake County, Illinois, moved to determine how many cases have been tainted by unreliable evidence from the UIC-AFTL.

Last year, the DuPage County state’s attorney was the first to take action, dismissing 19 cases, saying, “With the validity of the test results called into question, I could not, legally, ethically and in good conscience, continue the prosecution of these select cases.”

In Cook County, the state’s attorney reviewed more than 300 law enforcement matters in which evidence was submitted to the UIC lab for testing. That office flagged 64 felony or misdemeanor convictions involved with that testing.

However, only one felony case is being challenged by defense attorneys in court. The Cook County state’s attorney concluded that there is enough additional evidence for the others to stand.

“It is absolutely the nightmare as a prosecutor. You do not lose sleep over not convicting the guilty,” Safer said. “What you lose sleep over is the prospect that you may have convicted an innocent person.”

Drake was charged with aggravated driving under the influence causing a fatal crash and reckless homicide. He pleaded not guilty and spent nearly a year and a half behind bars as the case crawled through court. Those charges have now been dropped.

“Nobody should have to pull teeth for the prosecutors to come forward and do this,” Safer said.

Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart declined an on-camera interview. Instead, he sent a statement, saying, “Our hearts break for the family in this case… We cannot put scientifically unreliable evidence before a jury. Like other prosecutor offices in Illinois, we have made the difficult decision to dismiss these charges. Our ethical and constitutional duties mandate that we never obtain an illegal conviction through scientifically erroneous evidence.”

“They should be proud of what they’re doing,” Safer said. “They should be loud about this, because it is the best of the criminal justice system when the prosecutors come forward and protect the system over just getting convictions.”

The state had the sample blood tested by another lab. Those results showed a level well below the legal limit.

Despite the lab’s problems noted in its own report and the state forensic science commission raising concerns about the flawed science, prosecutors and public defenders caught up in this forensic testing debacle continue to decline to go on camera to explain what is being done as potentially thousands of lives caught up in court cases now hang in the balance.

In a statement, UIC told the I-Team it “remains committed to upholding the highest standards of laboratory research integrity and compliance.”

“It’s a fatal blow to the case, and good for the prosecutor in saying that he’s going to come forward, his client is justice, and that he’s going to dismiss the case because the science is bad,” Safer said.

Drake told the I-Team, in part, “What took place here was a tragedy and should never happen to anyone. And yet, it’s my understanding that UIC’s misconduct has affected not only me, but a number of others in Illinois. I should never have spent a day in jail.”

A member of Paul’s family said, in part, “We are deeply saddened and disappointed by the release of Derek Drake due to faulty testing systems. We do not believe justice was served in this case and we continue to grieve the loss of our brother.”

Full Paul family statement
“We are deeply saddened and disappointed by the release of Derek Drake due to faulty testing systems. We do not believe justice was served in this case and we continue to grieve the loss of our brother.”