In an October 21 motion in the court fight over unsealing the warrant used to search her home, the Justice Department referred to Rep. Ilhan Omar, Democrat of Minnesota, as "Congresswoman Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, a/k/a Ilhan Abdullahi Omar," without explaining the name. The next night, Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, whose office filed the motion, said on Fox News's "Jesse Watters Primetime": "Her real name is Ilhan Nur Said Elmi." Pirro said Omar's sister, whom she called Sahra Noor Said Elmi, "wrote a book and talked about the fact that Ilhan is her sister, so that is her name," while adding, "you'll have to ask her what she considers her name." Omar's office says the claim that her name is Ilhan Nur Said Elmi is "completely false." "My name has always been Ilhan Omar," Omar wrote on X on October 23, and she told reporters: "My name is Ilhan Abdullahi Omar." Neither the filing nor Pirro's remarks establish that Omar committed fraud, and she has not been charged with any crime.
The name in the filing matches that of Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, whom Omar married in 2009 and divorced in 2017. Some have claimed for years that he is her brother, as Al Jazeera noted, and that the marriage was immigration fraud. In September, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told an interviewer at the Republican midterm convention, "We know that she married her brother to try to bring him into the United States," and "Something's going to happen"; he did not say what evidence the government has, and none has been made public. Omar has repeatedly denied the allegation. In 2020 she called it "absolutely false and ridiculous" and said "insinuations that Ahmed Nur Said Elmi is my brother are absurd and offensive"; this month her spokesperson called the allegations about the marriage a "disgusting conspiracy theory," and asked in an MS NOW interview on October 21 whether she is related to Elmi, Omar said: "Not to my knowledge." No court has publicly ruled on the allegation. Separately, in 2019 Minnesota campaign finance officials found that in 2014 and 2015, years when she was legally married to Elmi, Omar had filed joint tax returns with a different man to whom she was not legally married, and ordered her to repay $3,500 in campaign funds spent on travel and tax filing and to pay a $500 fine; her campaign said her tax filings were "fully compliant with all applicable tax law."
The investigation
The filing grew out of an October 12 search, which Profoundd reported at the time. Agents from Homeland Security Investigations, an arm of the Department of Homeland Security, arrived at Omar's Washington home at 6 a.m. with a judicially authorized warrant. Omar told NBC News the search lasted "four or five hours" and that agents took 17 items, including old phones belonging to her and one of her daughters and notebooks and other belongings of her husband, Tim Mynett; the Associated Press reported that her cellphone was seized. Omar has said she will move out of the home because its address has become public and she has received death threats. Reporting by Al Jazeera and others describes the inquiry as examining whether Omar or her late father gave false information on immigration paperwork when the family came to the United States in 1995. Omar became a naturalized citizen in 2000, according to her lawyers. A person familiar with the investigation told NBC News that possible charges include conspiracy and making false statements in immigration paperwork, and investigators have issued more than a dozen grand jury subpoenas, including to some of her relatives, according to a person briefed on the probe who spoke to the AP, and investigators have interviewed her sister, Sahra Noor, CNN and Fox News reported. Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, has said "there are several investigations going on," including one into Omar's financial disclosures. The Justice Department said officers and attorneys "carefully followed the protocol set forth in the search warrant" and that "we cannot comment on the status of an ongoing investigation."
Some commentators, including on Fox News, have suggested investigators are seeking DNA evidence that could show whether Omar and Elmi are related. Omar said she was not asked for a DNA sample and that, going by the receipt agents gave her, she does not believe they took anything containing her DNA. No court record or official statement made public so far says DNA was collected.
Omar's response and the timing dispute
Omar's lawyers wrote to the Justice Department on October 16 demanding the immediate return of her property, calling the search "neither justified nor lawful" and the case a "vindictive, retributive, and politically motivated criminal investigation." They wrote that there is "no legitimate basis for any suggestion that she has violated any law concerning her citizenship status" and accused the department of breaking its longstanding policy against investigative steps that could influence an election; Omar is on the ballot for reelection on November 3. Justice Department spokesperson Emily Covington said the letter was "riddled with false allegations and inaccuracies" and that the department's attorneys and law enforcement partners "complied with all court orders and legal obligations, as they always do." Omar says President Trump has "everything to do with it"; Trump said hours after the search that he had "nothing to do" with it.
The fight over the warrant
Fourteen news organizations, including The New York Times, and the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch have asked Chief Judge James Boasberg of the federal district court in Washington to unseal the warrant materials, citing a 2008 ruling from the same court that "the routine practice is to make warrant materials publicly available after a search has been executed." Pirro's office, citing "good cause," asked to put off its responses until the warrant has been "fully executed," or failing that until November 9, six days after the election; the motion did not say what remained to be done. The Times wrote that it was "perplexed regarding what 'execution' you refer to." On October 22, Boasberg granted only part of the request: the department's response is due October 27, the original deadline, with briefing to finish by October 30. He allowed the department to explain its reasons in a sealed filing that only he will see, and said he would require a redacted public version if he decides one is needed.
Calls to resign, and what removal would take
Late on October 22, Trump wrote on Truth Social: "It was just revealed that Ilhan Omar's name is not Ilhan Omar, the one she used to get elected and sworn into Congress," and called on her to resign; at a rally in Iowa he said she "used a fake name to be sworn in" and should resign "immediately." Rep. Randy Fine, Republican of Florida, told Fox News Digital that if the department finds she committed immigration fraud, "if it isn't automatic, I absolutely will demand expulsion immediately." Omar answered on X: "Whenever the news turns bad, this creep reaches for one name: mine," and said in her MS NOW interview: "I have a legal right to be a member of Congress, and I am honored."
An investigation or even a charge does not remove a member of Congress. The Constitution requires House members to have been U.S. citizens for seven years and makes each chamber "the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members"; expelling a member takes a two-thirds vote. Federal law lets a court revoke citizenship that was "illegally procured" or obtained "by concealment of a material fact or by willful misrepresentation," but it requires a court case, and in Maslenjak v. United States (2017) the Supreme Court held that in a criminal naturalization-fraud prosecution the government must show that a false statement actually played a role in obtaining citizenship, not merely that one was made.
This article reflects reporting through the evening of Sunday, October 25, 2026. Sources: Al Jazeera, October 23; NBC News; The Daily Wire, October 24; Fox News, October 23; Associated Press via ABC News; Raw Story, October 21 and October 22; Newsweek; Pirro's remarks as transcribed by Breitbart, October 23; Mullin's remarks as reported by Blaze News, September 11.
