Rep. Ilhan Omar says she and her family will have to move out of their Washington, D.C., home after federal agents searched it earlier this month, telling MS NOW’s Chris Hayes that the raid made her address public at a time when she already faces a steady stream of death threats.
“Obviously, I can’t continue to live there,” the Minnesota Democrat said in her first interview since the Oct. 12 search, which aired Wednesday night. “Our address has been public, and with the death threats that I deal with, it’s no longer going to be feasible to be in that house and have my kids visiting off and on, having people track them.”
Pounding on the doors at 6 a.m.
Omar said she had gotten home from a trip in the early morning and had slept only about two and a half hours when agents with Homeland Security Investigations began pounding on her front and back doors around 6 a.m. Her first thought, she said, was that something was on fire.
“You don’t show up to somebody’s house that early in the morning unless you’re trying to freak them out,” she said. “And you know it obviously did freak all of us out.”
Her husband and her 20-year-old son were home at the time, according to NBC News. Omar said she asked to see a warrant and was shown one at the door. Agents then asked her to sign a document waiving protections she has as a member of Congress. She refused.
“That was obnoxious,” Omar said. “I couldn’t understand why they would think that I would sign such a thing.”
Four to five hours, up to 25 agents
Omar said the search lasted four to five hours and involved as many as 25 agents. She said she was not able to call her attorney until about an hour in, and spent the time sitting on the couch, reading the warrant and watching to make sure the agents stayed within its limits.
According to Omar, agents took 17 items, including her phone, an old phone, her youngest daughter’s old phone, her husband’s notebooks, a camera he had received from his uncle, and a Somali phrase book for children that he was using to learn the language. She said the agents “mostly conducted themselves in a decent way” and even put things back in place afterward.
What the government says
The Justice Department has said Homeland Security Investigations “executed a judicially authorized search warrant” as “part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation.” A person familiar with the investigation told NBC News that possible charges include conspiracy and making false statements in immigration paperwork, and the Associated Press reported that grand jury subpoenas have been issued to some of Omar’s relatives. CNN has reported that investigators are examining whether Omar or her late father made false statements about her age during the citizenship process.
Omar, who came to the United States from Somalia as a child and is a naturalized citizen, says she did nothing wrong and calls the investigation political intimidation aimed at Democrats ahead of the midterms. She pointed out that the government already holds the very paperwork it is now questioning.
“The people who knocked on my door, searching for papers, literally have his papers,” she said of her late father’s records. “They are the ones who processed us to come to the United States.”
Justice Department veterans have raised alarms about the timing of the search, which came weeks before the Nov. 3 midterm elections, in which Omar is on the ballot for reelection.
“Designed uniquely by God to withstand all of this”
Despite having to leave her home, Omar said she would not let the pressure break her.
“In my faith teachings, we believe that God doesn’t give you more than you can handle,” she said. “I think I’m designed uniquely by God to withstand all of this.”