Summary
Federal prosecutors are planning to use DNA evidence in a long-running criminal investigation into Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, according to sources …
Federal prosecutors are planning to use DNA evidence in a long-running criminal investigation into Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, according to sources familiar with the probe who spoke to the New York Post. The congresswoman has not been charged with any crime, and no laboratory results have been made public.
The sources said investigators have used whistleblowers, government records and newly obtained DNA in an effort to substantiate decade-old allegations that Omar and possibly other members of her family defrauded immigration authorities.
At the center of the investigation, according to one source, is Omar's 2009 marriage to Ahmed Nur Said Elmi. Prosecutors are examining the long-standing allegation that Elmi is Omar's brother and that the marriage was arranged to help him obtain a green card — which, the source noted, never came to fruition. The DNA is described as critical to establishing whether a sibling relationship exists. Elmi currently resides in the United Kingdom. Omar has denied the brother allegation for years.
The investigation escalated visibly last week. On October 12, Homeland Security Investigations agents searched the Washington, D.C., home Omar shares with her husband, Tim Mynett, and were photographed leaving with boxes marked "Seized Property Evidence." It is unclear whether the DNA was collected before or after that search. One source pushed back on early reports that investigators had obtained DNA by searching through trash.
Two sources said the search, combined with the DNA and other evidence, has given prosecutors a basis to bring charges of conspiracy to commit immigration fraud before a grand jury, stemming from a probe initiated by the Minnesota U.S. Attorney's Office. Former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani noted that a conspiracy framing can be legally useful to prosecutors, because overt acts in furtherance of an alleged conspiracy may be cited even when some underlying acts fall outside the statute of limitations.
Investigators have also interviewed Omar's sister, Sahra Noor, in recent days, according to Fox News Digital reporting cited by the Post. Noor had been scheduled to appear at the University of Minnesota's Rochester branch to promote her new book, but canceled, with a sponsoring bookstore citing a "family emergency."
Separately, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro, is overseeing a probe into Omar's and Mynett's finances, including House financial disclosure entries in which Omar's reported net worth dropped by tens of millions of dollars over the past year because of what has been described as an accounting discrepancy.
For now, the public record remains incomplete. Reports that investigators possess DNA samples do not by themselves establish what any testing shows, and no charging decision has been announced.
Source: New York Post
