Trump Says Ilhan Omar Could 'Go to Jail' in Oval Office Tirade, Days After Federal Agents Raided Her Home
The president escalated his feud with the Minnesota congresswoman from the Oval Office, floating jail time as her family faces a federal probe into whether she lied about her age during a 1995 immigration case. Omar says she won't be "intimidated."
WASHINGTON — President Trump said Tuesday that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) could end up in jail, using an Oval Office exchange to escalate a feud that began with a pre-dawn federal raid on her Washington home earlier this month.
Homeland Security Investigations, the investigative arm of ICE, executed a court-authorized search warrant at Omar's D.C. residence on Oct. 12, according to the Justice Department. Agents seized her cellphone during the search, and investigators have since issued more than a dozen subpoenas to her family members, per reporting from The Week.
What Investigators Are Looking At
The probe centers on whether Omar or her late father lied about her birth date when the family immigrated from Somalia in 1995, according to multiple outlets. Separately, and according to officials, unrelated to the home search, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro's office is examining whether Omar inflated her net worth on financial disclosure forms.
Trump made his sharpest comments yet on the matter Tuesday, saying Omar could "go to jail" and disparaging her native Somalia in the same breath, per The National. He said he would leave any final decision on the case to the Justice Department. Reporting has indicated the administration's broader goal is to pursue denaturalization and deportation proceedings against Omar, though no charges have been filed.
"I WON'T BE INTIMIDATED."
Omar has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and cast the investigation as political retaliation. On Wednesday, she told Minnesota Public Radio she won't be intimidated by the federal investigation, repeating her position that the probe is an attempt by the administration to silence a political critic. Her lawyers have separately demanded the return of property seized in the October raid, arguing in filings reported by Al Jazeera that the search was unlawful.
House Democratic leaders, including Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, have condemned the raid and Trump's subsequent comments. Republicans have largely stood behind the investigation, framing it as a legitimate fraud inquiry rather than retaliation.
No criminal charges have been announced against Omar as of Wednesday. The financial-disclosure review and the immigration-fraud investigation both remain open, and it is unclear when either might conclude.