WASHINGTON – Former US president Barack Obama defended Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar on social media on Oct 18, saying that the Trump administration’s intensifying investigation of the lawmaker amounted to “transparent efforts to intimidate” her.
“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,” Obama said in his post.
“But that’s exactly what the Trump Administration is doing.”
Federal agents searched Omar’s Washington home and issued subpoenas to relatives in October, scouring her family’s history for evidence of fraud and false statements in immigration paperwork.
Omar was born in Somalia in the early 1980s, and her family was admitted to the United States as refugees in the mid-1990s after fleeing civil war.
Her immigration history has been investigated by the federal authorities for more than a decade, but those inquiries have not led to charges.
Omar condemned the search, calling it an effort by the administration “to target political enemies and weaponise federal law enforcement”.
She has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing on immigration matters.
In the weeks before elections, federal law enforcement officials typically avoid taking overt investigative steps, like executing search warrants and issuing subpoenas, that could be seen as trying to help or hurt a candidate.
The search and subpoenas, coming weeks before the midterm elections and as US President Donald Trump has issued attacks against Omar, have raised questions about whether the investigation was ramping up because of political pressure from the White House.
Obama said it was. “The full weight of the federal government is being brought down on a law-abiding elected official because she has dared to criticise the president,” he wrote. NYTIMES
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.