It's getting pretty serious with the investigations into Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar (MN-05).
We've reported that at least two investigations are ongoing: one involving immigration questions and another involving financial disclosures. Now there are new reports that what's being looked into may be even broader than people generally believe. NewsNation's Leland Vittert claimed that the raid on Omar's home was just the most conspicuous of more than a dozen raids. He also reported that federal agents allegedly went dumpster diving in Omar's trash for DNA and that "likely coming indictments will be stunning in nature," according to his sources.
Multiple sources have confirmed to me that federal agents went dumpster diving to get DNA from Minnesota Congresswoman @IlhanMN and her family before the raid on her D.C. home earlier this week. Our reporting suggests investigations go far beyond simple immigration fraud. NewsNation sources say the likely coming indictments will be stunning in nature and far beyond anything the public has understood the case to be about.
— Leland Vittert (@LelandVittert) October 17, 2026
As we reported, Omar sounded like she was worried in her latest remarks, and her husband snapped at reporters when he was asked about rumors that she might have fled the country. She hasn't been seen publicly since the raid on her home.
Meanwhile, Omar's older sister, Sahra Noor, who is supposed to be on a tour promoting her book about her life as a Somali immigrant, was scheduled to be at a book tour stop at the University of Minnesota Rochester on Thursday night.
Except, according to reports, she skipped the event due to a "family emergency," amid all the action going on. Noor has allegedly been subpoenaed in the investigation.
Now there is a report from the New York Times that the sister's phone was seized before the raid on Omar's home.
Federal investigators have been reviewing family text messages as they aim to build a case implicating Representative Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, of conspiring to commit immigration fraud, three people familiar with the matter said this week.
The messages were obtained from a phone that officials seized earlier this year from one of Ms. Omar’s sisters, Sahra Noor, a health care executive and author, according to the three people. The messages contained information that investigators had used to get a federal judge to authorize homeland security agents to search Ms. Omar’s Washington-area residence on Monday, the three people said. Agents spent hours searching the home of the congresswoman and were seen walking away with several boxes of seized items.
Noor has not responded for comment on the matter.
Now Omar's attorneys are responding.
They're asking the government to return the property that was seized from Omar's home and alleging the search was “neither justified nor lawful.”
In a letter obtained by The Associated Press, lawyers for the Democrat from Minnesota described the investigation as a baseless effort to go after a longtime political target of Republican President Donald Trump, noting that the search was conducted just weeks before the midterm elections, in which Omar is on the ballot.
Omar’s attorneys wrote that there is “no legitimate basis for any suggestion that she has violated any law concerning her citizenship status.”
“This vindictive, retributive, and politically motivated criminal investigation into one of the President’s chief congressional critics violates Representative Omar’s constitutional rights and threatens the separation of powers,” Omar’s legal team wrote in the letter first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
They also raised questions about whether all the instructions of the judge who signed off on the warrant were followed.
DOJ spokesperson Emily Covington shot down the attorneys' claims, saying the letter was “riddled with false allegations and inaccuracies.” “Our attorneys and law enforcement partners complied with all court orders and legal obligations, as they always do,” she said.