Omar’s lawyers demand return of property seized in federal search

Lawyers for Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar have demanded that the Justice Department return property seized during a search of her Washington, DC, home, calling the investigation into her immigration history politically motivated and the search unlawful. The department rejected their accusations, saying its personnel complied with court orders and legal requirements.

“The political motivations behind this pre-election investigation and search are clear as day,” attorneys Amy Jeffress and Joshua Matz wrote in a letter sent to federal prosecutors Friday and obtained by The Associated Press. “This search was neither justified nor lawful.”

Federal agents searched the Minnesota congresswoman’s home Monday and seized her phone. Al Jazeera reported that agents also took her passport. More than a dozen grand jury subpoenas have been issued in the investigation, including subpoenas involving Omar’s relatives.

The lawyers said there was “no legitimate basis for any suggestion that she has violated any law concerning her citizenship status.” They also accused investigators of failing to follow instructions from the magistrate judge who approved the search. According to Al Jazeera, the lawyers said investigators neither supplied them with a copy of the warrant in advance nor contacted the House of Representatives’ Office of General Counsel, as the judge had directed. The lawyers said those procedures were intended to protect Omar’s constitutional rights as a member of Congress and materials related to her legislative work.

“This vindictive, retributive, and politically motivated criminal investigation into one of the president’s chief congressional critics violates Representative Omar’s constitutional rights and threatens the separation of powers,” the attorneys wrote. They asked the department to preserve any audio and video recordings made during the search.

The letter also challenged the timing of the investigation ahead of the November midterm elections, in which Omar is on the ballot. “Historically, the Department has refrained from this type of investigative activity so close to an election, so as to avoid even the appearance of politically motivated law enforcement actions,” the lawyers wrote.

Justice Department spokesperson Emily Covington called the letter “riddled with false allegations and inaccuracies”. “Our attorneys and law enforcement partners complied with all court orders and legal obligations, as they always do,” she said.

The scope of the current investigation remains unclear. The Guardian reported that Fox News, citing sources close to the investigation, said the search concerned a criminal fraud inquiry into immigration paperwork Omar’s father completed when she was a child. Omar has denied an allegation, promoted by President Donald Trump and conservative media figures, that she married her brother to help him obtain immigration status.

According to Al Jazeera, Omar became a naturalized US citizen in 2000 after fleeing Somalia with her family as a child. Her lawyers have requested records from a 2019 inquiry into her immigration history; The Washington Post reported that the earlier inquiry found insufficient evidence of wrongdoing to warrant a full investigation.

After the search, Omar posted on X: “I’m ok.” She called it “an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement.” Trump denied involvement. “I’ve always found her to be totally crooked, personally, but that has nothing to do with me,” he said.