Political Guyentist
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[UPDATE] Agents seized Ilhan Omar's phone in the search of her home, and a Minnesota grand jury has subpoenaed her relatives

Investigators are examining whether her age and her family's immigration filings were falsified; her staff had a Minnesota library change her listed birth year from 1981 to 1982.

Investigators took the phone of Ilhan Omar (Rep-D Minnesota) during the Monday, Oct. 12 search of her Washington home. A federal grand jury in Minnesota has issued more than a dozen subpoenas, including to her relatives (NBC counts about a dozen). Omar herself was not subpoenaed. Investigators are examining whether her age and her family's immigration filings were falsified. The birth year. Her staff asked a Minnesota library to change her listed birth year from 1981 to 1982, Fox News reports. The timing. CBS and NBC say the subpoenas went out Friday, Oct. 9, before the search. TIME says they went out Tuesday, Oct. 13, after it. CBS reports that DOJ's Public Integrity Section (the unit that reviews politically sensitive cases) was consulted before the search. The section is down to two attorneys. The family. Her husband, Tim Mynett, said: "My wife came here when she was 12 years old as a child war refugee. No concerns."

PREVIOUSLY

On Monday, Oct. 12, 22 days before the Nov. 3 election, federal agents searched Omar's home in a criminal probe of immigration papers her late father filed when she was a child; she became a citizen in 2000, reportedly at 17. On Oct. 13, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro opened a review of financial disclosures valuing husband Tim Mynett's two businesses at $15,000–$51,000 for 2023 and $6 million–$30 million for 2024, per Fox News, and Trump said he takes "no position" on deporting her; Omar has not been charged.

What DOJ's election-timing rules forbid, and what they don't:

  • Justice Manual 9-27.260 bars choosing any step, or its timing, to help or hurt a candidate or party.
  • Justice Manual 9-85.500 requires consulting Public Integrity when an action could raise that issue, or look like it does.
  • The familiar 60-day pause before an election is unwritten practice, described in the inspector general's 2018 review of the 2016 election.