DOJ Calls Rep. Ilhan Omar 'Ilhan Nur Said Elmi' in Court and Says Its Search of Her Home Isn't Finished

Rep. Ilhan Omar, the Somalia-born Minnesota Democrat under federal investigation for possible immigration fraud, appears under a different name in a new Justice Department court filing. The government's motion, filed Wednesday in federal court in Washington, refers to her as "Congresswoman Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, a/k/a Ilhan Abdullahi Omar," according to the filing posted by Judicial Watch.

The same filing says something just as striking: nine days after Homeland Security Investigations agents searched Omar's Washington home, the search warrant still has not been "fully executed." Prosecutors asked the court to hold off on any decision about unsealing the warrant records until it is, the Daily Wire reported.

Why the name matters

Omar legally married a man named Ahmed Nur Said Elmi in 2009 and did not finalize their divorce until 2017. For most of a decade, critics have alleged that Elmi is her brother and that the marriage was meant to help him with his immigration status. Omar has called that claim "disgusting lies," PolitiFact reported. The surname the government now uses for her in court is the same as his.

Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton, whose group is one of three parties asking for the records, flagged it within hours.

The Washington Post added another piece this week. In its account of the first Trump administration's look at Omar's history, the Post reported that Elmi once applied to make his marriage-based residency permanent, that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services asked for more evidence over concerns about the validity of the marriage, and that he then withdrew the application, The Federalist noted.

A search that isn't over

Agents searched Omar's home at 6 a.m. on Oct. 12, Anadolu Agency reported, and took her phone, notebooks, computers and passport, the New York Post reported. Within days, 14 news organizations including the AP, Reuters, CNN and The Washington Post, plus The New York Times and Judicial Watch, asked the court to unseal the warrant, the probable-cause affidavits and the inventory of what was taken.

The Justice Department's answer, signed for U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro and Associate Deputy Attorney General Alessandra Serano, is to wait. It asks Chief Judge James Boasberg to set one response deadline for all three requests after the search is complete, with a status report due within 30 days of that point. If he won't wait, the department asks for Nov. 9, six days after the midterm election. Its reasons are in a memorandum it asked to file under seal, for the judge's eyes only, the filing says.

Think of it like a card game still in progress. Investigators are asking not to lay their hand face up while they are still playing it.

The Times objected in a statement attached to the motion. "We are also perplexed regarding what 'execution' you refer to," its lawyers wrote, arguing that secrecy is "especially intolerable in the run-up to an election in which Rep. Omar is a candidate for office." The government had a deadline of Thursday, Oct. 22, to answer the Times and the other outlets.

What investigators are looking at

The probe goes beyond the 2009 marriage. CNN reported that investigators are examining whether Omar or her late father lied about her age when she obtained citizenship in 2000, and that the magistrate judge who approved the warrant limited how prosecutors could access her records because she is a member of Congress, according to CNN. Border czar Tom Homan has said she could be denaturalized and deported if fraud is proven, and President Trump said Tuesday, "She could also go to jail," Blaze News reported.

Omar has not been charged. Her office called the raid an abuse of power, and her lawyers accused agents of breaking the warrant's terms. The Justice Department told Blaze News that letter is "riddled with false allegations and inaccuracies" and that its attorneys and agents "complied with all court orders and legal obligations," Blaze News reported.

Meanwhile, Omar resurfaced Tuesday in a tearful TikTok video asking supporters for money. "It is going to be a very expensive and challenging time," she said. The government, for its part, just told a federal judge it isn't done yet, and it used a name for her that her critics have been pointing to for years.