What Fox News confirmed
The investigation into whether Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., married her brother in an alleged immigration fraud scheme began under former President Barack Obama in 2016, according to Fox News Digital, which said it had confirmed the timeline. A source familiar with the matter told the outlet that a U.S. Attorney in Minnesota, appointed by then-President Joe Biden, eventually shut the probe down in 2021.
The issue has resurfaced as part of a new federal investigation into the Somali-born congresswoman. Part of that inquiry centers on whether Omar or her father committed immigration fraud on her application to become a U.S. citizen, Fox News reported.
The marriage and the 2016 probe
According to Fox News, Omar legally married Ahmed Nur Said Elmi in 2009, when she was already a U.S. citizen. The couple officially split in 2017. Fox said sources previously told it that Omar's "real name" is Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, and that a federal court document referred to her as "Ilhan Omar Nur Said Elmi, a/k/a Ilhan Omar."
The New York Times first reported that the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security opened the probe in the summer of 2016. Fox News, citing the Times, said officials "found some evidence that [the marriage] was fraudulent." The Times also reported that the investigation concluded after officials decided the potential felony was past the statute of limitations.
Omar's spokesperson disputes that account. The spokesperson said the 2016 investigation was "rejected for a lack of evidence," contrary to the Times' reporting on the statute of limitations, according to Fox News Digital.
The October search and Obama's response
The renewed investigation became public after Homeland Security Investigations agents searched Omar's Washington, D.C., home on Oct. 12, Fox News reported. Federal authorities confiscated her passport, personal phone and computer. Reports described the search as part of an ongoing criminal investigation.
Obama criticized the new probe in a post on X after the search. "It is a basic principle of American democracy that the government can’t selectively target individuals simply because of their political beliefs or what they say," he wrote, adding that this was "exactly what the Trump Administration is doing" to Omar. He also wrote 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."
Fox News noted that his own administration's investigation overlapped with the period when Omar was running for the Minnesota House. The outlet said the post drew backlash from some critics. Fox said it asked an Obama spokesperson for comment.
Omar's response
Omar has often described the claim that she married her brother as a conspiracy theory promoted by the political right. In a statement to Fox News Digital last week, a spokesperson said she has "repeatedly and unequivocally denied this baseless, disgusting conspiracy theory." The spokesperson called it "a desperate political smear designed to distract from Trump’s failed presidency and two years of Republican failure in Congress."
The same spokesperson said this week that the current investigation is a "political vendetta against one of Trump's most visible critics," according to Fox News. The outlet said it also contacted the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Minnesota. The source material includes no response from that office.
What remains unclear
The reporting leaves open how far the new investigation has progressed. No charges are mentioned in the material, and the allegations about Omar's marriage and citizenship application remain unproven. The accounts of why the earlier probe ended also conflict: the Times cites the statute of limitations, while Omar's office cites a lack of evidence.
