WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
  • Ilhan Omar answered “Not to my knowledge” when asked whether she was related to former husband Ahmed Nur Said Elmi.
  • Federal agents searched Omar’s Washington residence and removed 17 items during an investigation into alleged immigration fraud.
  • Omar denied investigators collected her DNA and described the search as “intrusive but polite.”
  • A separate investigation involving Omar and her husband’s finances is being conducted by the Washington, DC, US Attorney’s Office.
  • Omar denies immigration fraud and financial wrongdoing, saying she expects to be “just fine.”

Rep. Ilhan Omar offered a remarkably incomplete denial Wednesday when pressed about allegations that she married her brother, telling MS NOW host Chris Hayes that her former husband was not related to her, at least as far as she knows.

“Not to my knowledge,” the Minnesota Democrat responded when Hayes asked whether there was any “weird kernel of truth” behind the claim. The answer stopped noticeably short of a categorical denial.

The allegations, which are about a decade old, claim Omar married her former husband, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, in a failed effort to obtain a green card for him. Omar said the story originated on a “Somali blog” before “right-wing conspiracy theorists” seized upon it.

“Somebody put in there that, you know, he had to have been my brother or something to that effect,” Omar said. She dismissed accounts from people who reportedly claimed she had introduced Elmi as her brother as “insane.”

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The interview marked Omar’s first since federal agents searched her Washington, DC, residence last week. Homeland Security Investigations agents executed a federal search warrant at the home she shares with her husband, Tim Mynett, as part of an investigation into alleged immigration fraud.

Omar said she initially believed there might be a fire or an emergency involving her neighbors when agents began banging on the door. “It sounded like an urgent evacuation sort of situation,” she told Hayes.

According to Omar, agents “went room by room” and removed 17 items. She said the seized property included her cellphones, her daughter’s old cellphone, her husband’s notebooks, a Somali phrase book and a camera.

Omar disputed reports that investigators obtained her DNA during the search. “I would have seen if they did take anything that had contained DNA,” she said.

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Despite calling the search “intrusive but polite,” Omar praised the agents for leaving the residence orderly. “They actually even folded some of my clothing that were not folded,” she said.

Omar indicated that she does not expect to remain at the Washington home because her address became public. She said threats against her made the residence no longer feasible for her family, including when her children visit.

The congresswoman had largely stayed out of public view after the warrant was executed last Monday. In her first recorded remarks afterward, she asked supporters to donate to her reelection campaign so she could “fight Trump and his administration for trying to intimidate me and so many other people right before the midterm elections.”

Omar accused President Trump of “running scared” in the minute-long video, which was recorded in the back of a moving vehicle and posted on social media. Trump said Tuesday that Omar could face incarceration if investigators determine that she committed immigration fraud.

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“She could go to jail,” Trump said. “They keep talking about deportation.”

The investigation is being led by the Minnesota US Attorney’s Office and may involve possible false statements on immigration paperwork concerning Omar’s birth date, sources familiar with the case told The Post. More than a dozen federal grand jury subpoenas have reportedly been issued, including subpoenas to Omar’s relatives.

A source said the Trump administration would seek to denaturalize and deport Omar if her citizenship was obtained through concealment of a material fact or willful misrepresentation by Omar or her father, Nur Omar Mohamed. Omar denies committing immigration fraud.

Omar maintains that she became a citizen at age 17 through her father, who became a naturalized citizen in 2000, five years after emigrating to the United States. A separate investigation involving Omar and her husband’s finances is being conducted by the Washington, DC, US Attorney’s Office.

That financial scrutiny also surfaced during the interview after Omar was asked about documents suggesting that she and Mynett had a combined net worth of about $30 million. Omar later claimed the figure was a mistake and revised it downward.

Omar described herself as “working class” and said she lives “paycheck to paycheck.” She pointed to the couple’s 2016 Toyota Camry, their only vehicle, and said she rents residences in Washington and Minneapolis.

Omar has denied wrongdoing related to her finances and expressed confidence about the outcome of the investigations. “I’m confident in my truth. I’m confident in the fact that I didn’t do anything wrong,” she told Hayes.

“I do feel confident that when it’s all said and done that I’m going to be just fine,” Omar added. Her unusual “not to my knowledge” response, however, ensured the central allegation would remain a subject of scrutiny rather than putting it cleanly to rest.

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