Many of the Democrats now melting down over Homeland Security Investigations' raid of Minnesota Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar's Washington, D.C.-area residence weren't at all fussed when their top political opponent was having his home searched by armed federal agents.
Quick recap
A Justice Department spokeswoman confirmed to the New York Times that HSI agents executed a judicially authorized search of a home in the D.C. area on Monday as part of an "ongoing federal criminal investigation."
'No one is above the law.'
Three people briefed on the matter told the Times that the search warrant for the Somali-born ethno-nationalist's house lists various potential immigration crimes under investigation including fraud in immigration paperwork.
Omar has long been dogged by allegations that she married her brother to help him fraudulently obtain immigration status in the United States. She has called the allegations "absolutely false and ridiculous."
The raid on Monday comes just weeks after White House border czar Thomas Homan confirmed the existence of an HSI criminal probe into Omar.
Homan told Fox News that “if someone committed immigration violation, if someone committed marriage fraud or anything like that, regardless if they're a congressman or not, no one's above the law.”
A tale of two raids
Omar's office called the raid "an outrageous abuse of power and an unprecedented escalation in the weaponization of federal law enforcement to target political enemies," and Omar called it "an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement."
Democrats quickly joined Omar in condemning the judicially authorized search and in characterizing it as "unprecedented" and "disturbing."
RELATED: The raid that Democrats can’t wave away
Jim WATSON/AFP/Getty Images; Joe Raedle/Getty Images
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.J.), House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.), and Rep. Peter Aguilar (D-Calif.), for instance, claimed in a joint statement, "The Trump administration’s raid on Congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s home is deeply disturbing and raises serious questions about the continued corrupt weaponization of the federal government against Donald Trump’s adversaries."
The trio also criticized the federal government for targeting a lawmaker's home ahead of an election.
Jeffries sang a different tune, however, when just months ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, the FBI raided President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence with guns drawn.
The day after the raid, Jeffries tweeted, "No one is above the law." In the weeks that followed, he repeatedly used this line and stated that while "extraordinary," the raid appeared to be justified.
Eight days after the FBI swarmed Mar-a-Lago, Katherine Clark also defended the raid, stating in an interview with GBH News, "This was a legal search warrant signed off by a federal judge."
Clark further claimed that Republicans were playing a "dangerous game" by condemning the raid and stressed the need to wait and "see what this investigation turns into."
At the time, Aguilar insinuated that the Mar-a-Lago raid was necessary, concern-mongered about the classified documents found at Trump's residence, and insisted that Trump was fair game.
This trio is hardly the only group of Democrats whose complaints now ring hollow owing to their disparate response four years ago.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) clutched pearls on Monday over the Omar raid, calling it an "assault on our constitutional values"; an "outrageous abuse of power"; part of a broader "campaign of political retribution" against a critic of the president; and "blatant political intimidation and an attempt to interfere with the Congresswoman’s reelection."
Raskin did not appear to be similarly outraged over the FBI's election-time raid of Trump's residence.
When asked on Aug. 9, 2022, about the Mar-a-Lago raid, Raskin coolly said, "Speaking as a citizen, we all have an interest in the rule of law in the country and respect for the rule of law, and the resistance to the lawlessness that seems to be, you know, always out there now."
California Rep. Ro Khanna (D) whined about the Omar raid this week, claiming in a video statement that "it is simply chilling that they are targeting political opponents this way."
Like his comrades, Khanna took an entirely different approach in 2022, telling then-MSNBC host Ari Melber, "The FBI doesn't just go in unless a judge signs off on a search warrant. That means they have some probable evidence about possible wrongdoing."
Khanna further said that then-Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Justice Department were just "following the facts" and that "it's not for me or members of Congress to say what should happen."
RELATED: Is Ilhan Omar getting deported? Trump's post raises eyebrows
HSI officers search the home of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.). Andrew Leyden/Getty Images
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) is another hypocritical Democrat who felt obligated to defend the 2022 raid but condemn the 2026 raid.
Tlaib told Michigan Advance days after the Mar-a-Lago raid that Trump is "not above the law. If he committed a crime, he should be held accountable to it. I don’t care that he was president of the United States. If anything, we set a dangerous precedent if we let folks get away with these kinds of things, especially when it comes to, you know, national security."
Now that the shoe is on the Somali foot, Tlaib is crying foul.
She stated on Monday, "Trump is grossly abusing his power to raid the home of Rep. Omar. He has repeatedly attacked her, Somali Americans, and Minnesotans. @Ilhan has done nothing to justify a pre-dawn raid ahead of the election. I stand with my sister always."
Even Omar herself claimed that "no one is above the law" when arguing that the criminal indictment of Trump was a sign that the justice system worked as designed. "The fact that one of the most powerful people in the world was investigated impartially and indicted by a grand jury is testament to the fact that we live in a country of laws," she tweeted in March 2023.
Vice President JD Vance rejected Democrats' claim this week that the administration is weaponizing federal law enforcement against Trump adversaries, telling Fox News Digital on Tuesday, "We don't want to be like the Biden administration. We never want to be like that — where they would allow the law to go after their political opponents."
"We really want to let the law, the facts drive this," said Vance. "And if justice requires something else be done, then, of course, we'll take a step when we have to."
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