Exclusive: Judge limited Justice Department access to Rep. Ilhan Omar’s records in sprawling immigration fraud probe

By Katelyn Polantz, Evan Perez, Jake Tapper, CNN

(CNN) — The Trump administration pushed for an unusually aggressive search of Rep. Ilhan Omar’s house in recent days in an immigration fraud probe that targets the congresswoman, possible false statements made on government documents, and a potential conspiracy, according to multiple people familiar with the investigation.

Prosecutors, however, first had to contend with a federal magistrate judge, in a prolonged back-and-forth that hasn’t previously been reported. Judge Matthew Sharbaugh of the DC District Court ultimately limited how the Justice Department could access Omar’s documents in Monday’s search, before he would approve the warrant, because of her role as a member of Congress and the Constitutional protections that affords, multiple people familiar with the investigation told CNN.

The investigators’ inquiries that prompted the search include whether Omar or her now-deceased father lied about her age when she obtained citizenship in 2000, claiming she was a minor when she was of adult age.

Omar emigrated to the US as a Somalian refugee around the age of 12 and became a citizen in 2000, according to people familiar with Omar’s situation.

One source told CNN the government could try to expand the investigation into a wider conspiracy case and try to investigate if this was deception and the purposeful falsification of information over years by a larger group of individuals.

Omar has been under criminal investigations for years — including before Trump took office last year. But the Trump administration has pushed further with the belief that she has repeated false statements when filling out government documents, such as a passport, in recent years. That is what led to the search on Monday, the sources say.

The search of her home in DC was highly unusual for its timing less than a month before Election Day voting ends, including while Omar is running for reelection as a Democrat in Minnesota.

The effort is also the federal push this month has also been unusual for its attempt to access a member of Congress’ records — the type of criminal investigative work that Republicans this year have made into a political firestorm for past administrations.

As part of the renewed probe, at least a dozen subpoenas were issued beginning last Friday to witnesses, most of them relatives, according to people familiar with the investigation.

Government records and archives in Somalia are notoriously unreliable and hard to access due to years of conflict and disconnected government entities.

Judge limits search on Omar’s home

In recent weeks, the Justice Department argued for broad access to records that Omar kept at her home in Washington, the sources said.

The Justice Department has argued that with Omar there was little need for sequestering the records taken from her home on Monday.

But the judge who ultimately approved the search told the Justice Department that wasn’t possible under the law, the sources said. Sharbaugh of the DC District Court told prosecutors from DC they would need to set up a process for screening the records to protect Omar’s legislative work from investigators.

In DC, the courts have upheld expansive protections around records of legislative work for members of Congress under the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause.

The multi-day back-and-forth between the judge and the Justice Department in recent days hasn’t been previously reported.

It may now have vast implications for both federal investigators that are looking to potentially charge Omar with a crime and for her campaign.

The Justice Department’s approach to the search also was especially notable because Omar, a US citizen originally from Somalia, is a high-profile member of the group of female progressives known as “The Squad,” a top and frequent political target of President Donald Trump and is running for re-election to Congress in Minnesota, where voting in the mid-term elections has already begun.

Omar has publicly called the search of her home a political attack prompted by the hatred that Trump and Republicans have for her.

“This is an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement,” Omar said in a post on social media on Monday. “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 has denied any wrongdoing and hasn’t been charged with a crime. An attorney for Omar didn’t respond to multiple requests for this story.

Years of investigations into Omar

Investigators are looking into an unsubstantiated claim around whether her now ex-husband, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, was her brother, in order to get him citizenship — a claim that has been repeated by Trump and which Omar has called “bigoted lies.”

Even if substantiated, the statute of limitations would have long run out over any crime, and it’s unclear what role that would play in the inquiry, informed sources told CNN.

No charges were brought by the Biden-era investigators and the case around Omar didn’t progress nearly as far as the current Trump-era investigators have taken it, several people familiar with the investigation said.

The case was reopened last year and is now being led by prosecutors in the deputy attorney general’s office and in the US attorney’s office in Minneapolis, the sources said. The US Attorney’s Office in Washington, DC, has also been involved.

Any new case, if charged, would likely be complicated by Trump’s rhetoric against Omar, over many years and some of it being racist. Vice President JD Vance has also talked about discussing the case with White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, and White House border czar Tom Homan has repeatedly talked on Fox News about an ongoing investigation into Omar.

“If someone committed immigration violation, someone committed marriage fraud or anything like that, regardless if they’re a congressman or not, no one’s above the law, so I’ll leave it at that,” Homan said in a September interview after mentioning an “ongoing criminal investigation” around Omar.

A separate investigation of possible financial misconduct, including around campaign finance, also continues in the DC US attorney’s office.

DC US Attorney Jeanine Pirro was asked on Tuesday on Fox News about Omar’s financial disclosures that House ethics investigators previously scrutinized.

“That is the subject of an investigation as well,” Pirro said. “We’re looking at the facts. Based upon the facts we will follow them wherever they take us.”

Since the DC federal court’s oversight of the search of Omar’s home, any criminal investigation that would rely on her own records may be slowed down substantially, and has already raised concerns about Justice Department integrity and politicization.

Judges in the DC District Court have grown increasingly skeptical of the Trump administration’s approach to Constitutional protections in criminal cases, especially when those cases appear politically charged.

At the same time, Republicans have been furious with the Justice Department under President Joe Biden for seeking Congress members’ communications in past criminal investigations. Republicans o Capitol Hill and Trump have been particularly critical of former special counsel Jack Smith obtaining secrecy orders when Smith’s office subpoenaed phone companies for call logs of members around the January 6, 2021, US Capitol attack conspiracy investigation.

Generally, the Justice Department avoids overt investigative activity that could affect an election within 60 days of Election Day.

In this case, however, top Justice officials signed off on Monday’s HSI search.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.