Agents search Rep. Omar's Washington home in criminal probe as she vows
she won't 'be silenced'
[October 13, 2026]
By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and ERIC TUCKER
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal agents on Monday searched the home of
Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, a startling escalation in a criminal
investigation that brings renewed focus to the frequent target of Trump
administration derision in the final weeks of her reelection bid.
The search of the Minnesota congresswoman's home so close to next
month's midterm contests that will determine control of the House and
the Senate was swiftly condemned by top Democrats in Congress, who
raised questions about the timing given longstanding Justice Department
protocol to avoid overt investigative steps involving political
candidates in the direct run-up to an election. Omar, an outspoken
critic of President Donald Trump, said she was being targeted as one of
the Republican's “political enemies.”
The scope of the investigation was unclear, though Trump and officials
in his administration have repeatedly referred in recent months to the
existence of an inquiry into Omar, a Somali-born Democrat whose status
as an immigrant to the U.S. and left-wing views have drawn scrutiny from
the White House and other Republicans.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin last month cited an
“ongoing investigation” that he suggested was examining potential fraud
in her family's immigration paperwork. “Something's going to happen,” he
said in a potential foreshadowing of the search.
In a statement on X on Monday, Omar called the search an “attempt to
target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement.”
“For ten years, Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear
campaigns. This is just the latest escalation in his campaign of
political intimidation,” she said. “I will not be silenced.”
At a political rally in Ohio later Monday, Trump attacked Omar's Somali
origins, saying, "She’s telling us about the Constitution, and she comes
from one of the worst countries anywhere on the planet.” The crowd
responded by shouting, “Deport.”
Though the Republican focus on Omar's background dates back years, the
search notably took place three weeks before the November midterms, in
which Omar is seeking reelection. The Justice Department has
historically sought to avoid public investigative actions involving a
candidate within 60 days of a primary or general election. Top Democrats
seized on the timing as the latest instance in what they said was the
“continued corrupt weaponization” against Trump's perceived adversaries.
“For years, Donald Trump and far-right extremists have relentlessly
targeted Congresswoman Omar with vile personal attacks and baseless
accusations,” said a joint statement from House Minority Leader Hakeem
Jeffries and other top congressional Democrats. “Now, less than 30 days
until the midterm election, his violent mass deportation machine has
descended upon the home of a duly elected Member of Congress and her
family.”
Trump says he had “nothing to do” with search
The search was carried out by agents with Homeland Security
Investigations, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security.
A DHS spokesperson referred questions to the Justice Department, which
said in a statement that HSI agents had executed a judicially authorized
search warrant in the Washington, D.C., area related to an ongoing
federal criminal investigation but provided no other details.
The street around Omar's home was blocked off Monday morning as some HSI
agents removed boxes labeled “Seized Property Evidence.”
The operation came just days after Trump referred pejoratively to Omar
at a rally in Tennessee as coming from a country of “crime and squalor"
and suggested that Vice President JD Vance “and our people” were
investigating her. Hours after the search, Trump told reporters he had
“nothing to do” with it and it's “really up to the DOJ.”
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Homeland Security officers leave the Washington residence of Rep.
Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., after a search, Monday, Oct. 12, 2026. (AP
Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Trump suggested he didn’t know what was happening with the
investigation even as he seemed to suggest that Omar was engaged in
suspect behavior.
Vance has in the past accused Omar of committing immigration fraud,
an allegation she has denied, and has said the administration was
looking for pathways to investigate her.
Omar has long been a target for Republicans
Omar, who was first elected to the House in 2018, represents
Minnesota’s 5th District, including Minneapolis. She is part of The
Squad of progressive lawmakers who are a vibrant political force on
the left wing of Congress but have also endured repeated attacks
from Trump, dating back to his first term. She was one of the first
two Muslim-American women in the House and the first African refugee
to be elected to Congress.
When Republicans swept control of the House in 2023, they voted to
oust Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee, citing her
anti-Israel remarks.
In January, Trump lashed out at Omar during a rally in Iowa hours
before an assailant sprayed the congresswoman during her own town
hall meeting in Minneapolis with a substance that turned out to be
vinegar. The attacker was sentenced to 14 months in prison.
Omar has repeatedly refuted allegations about her marriage and
immigration status raised by conservative critics, even before she
joined Congress.
According to her House biography, Omar has said she and her family
fled Somalia’s civil war when she was 8: “The family spent four
years in a refugee camp in Kenya before coming to the United States
in 1990s. In 1997, she moved to Minneapolis with her family.”
Conservative online sites have alleged that Omar married a brother
to commit immigration fraud. Omar has broadly denied the allegations
as “disgusting lies" and called the insinuation “absurd and
offensive.”
“It certainly seems like something fishy is there, but everybody's
entitled to equal justice under the laws,” Vance told reporters in
May. “So we're going to investigate it. We're going to take a look
at it. If we think there's a crime, we're going to prosecute that
crime. And that's something the Department of Justice is looking at
right now."
In an interview last March with conservative podcaster Benny
Johnson, Vance said without offering evidence that “we actually
think that Ilhan Omar definitely committed immigration fraud against
the United States of America.” Omar’s office at the time dismissed
Vance’s claims as fabricated and defamatory.
Last month, when the podcaster Johnson reminded Mullin about Vance's
comments on Omar and asked whether anything would happen from that
investigation, the Homeland Security secretary responded,
“Something's going to happen.”
He cited an “ongoing investigation” that he suggested was examining
potential fraud in the family's immigration paperwork.
“If we actually move a case forward, it's not a political case. It's
actually a case because they did things wrong,” Mullin said. “If you
decided to break the law or lie on the information that you gave to
the United States, to be able to come into the United States ...
there's no expiration to that.”
___
Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro, Michelle L. Price and River
Zhang in Washington, Kathy McCormack in Concord, N.H., Mike Catalini
in Morrisville, Pa., and Meg Kinnard in Columbia, S.C., contributed.
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