Fox Confirms the Ilhan Omar Marriage Probe Began Under Obama in 2016 and Was Closed in 2021 by a Biden-Appointed U.S. Attorney
Fox News Digital says the first federal look at whether Omar's 2009 marriage was fraudulent started in 2016. The New York Times reports officials found some evidence of fraud but let it lapse over the statute of limitations. Omar's office calls it a smear.
The federal question about Rep. Ilhan Omar's marriage is older than the current investigation, Fox News Digital reports, and the Obama administration was the first to ask it.
What Fox confirmed. The probe into whether Omar, D-Minn., married her brother in an immigration fraud scheme began in 2016 under President Barack Obama, Fox says. A U.S. Attorney in Minnesota appointed by President Joe Biden shut it down in 2021, according to a source familiar with the matter.
What the Times reported. Fox says The New York Times first reported that Obama's FBI and Department of Homeland Security opened the inquiry in the summer of 2016 and that officials "found some evidence that [the marriage] was fraudulent." The Times reported the case ended when officials decided the possible felony was past the statute of limitations.
The names. Fox says sources have told it Omar's "real name" is Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, and that a federal court document calls her "Ilhan Omar Nur Said Elmi, a/k/a Ilhan Omar." In 2009 she legally married a man with that surname, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi. The two officially split in 2017.
Why it matters now. The old question has come back as part of a new federal investigation, which includes an Oct. 12 Homeland Security Investigations raid on her Washington home. Federal agents took her passport, personal phone and computer. Part of the new probe centers on whether she or her father committed immigration fraud on her citizenship application.
Obama's role. Fox points out that Obama condemned the renewed probe on X even though his own administration had looked at Omar in 2016, while she was running for the Minnesota House. He wrote that the government "can't selectively target individuals simply because of their political beliefs or what they say," and that "the full weight of the federal government is being brought down on a law-abiding elected official because she has dared to criticize the president."
Omar's response. A spokesperson told Fox that Omar "has repeatedly and unequivocally denied this baseless, disgusting conspiracy theory," and called the investigation "a desperate political smear designed to distract from Trump's failed presidency and two years of Republican failure in Congress." The spokesperson said the 2016 probe was "rejected for a lack of evidence," which differs from the Times account that it ended over the statute of limitations.
Note for readers: Omar has not been charged. The claims about the 2016 case come from Fox's sources and the Times, and we have not seen the case files. Fox says it asked an Obama spokesperson and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Minnesota for comment.