Democratic U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota on Wednesday said that she cannot continue living in her Washington, D.C.-area home due to death threats and fears over her publicly available address, following the federal raid she accused the Trump administration of initiating to intimidate voters.
“Obviously, I can't continue to live there,” the congresswoman told Chris Hayes on MS NOW Wednesday evening. "So have to figure out where to move to.”
During the interview, Omar recounted waking up around 6 a.m. October 12 to Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents pounding on the front and back doors of her home while she, her husband and their 20-year-old son were inside. She described the raid as chaotic, saying her family scrambled to get dressed and downstairs as they tried to understand what was happening.
“You don't show up to somebody's house that early in the morning unless you're trying to freak them out. And, you know, it obviously did freak all of us out,” she said.
Omar said she had returned from traveling in the early morning hours and had been asleep for only a couple of hours when agents arrived. She initially thought something was on fire.
She estimated that 15 to 25 agents searched the house room by room, over four to five hours. Authorities took 17 items, she said, including an older phone, her daughter's first phone, a recently replaced phone, keepsakes, a camera dating to the 1960s, a Somali phrase book and notebooks.
“I was surprised when they handed me the receipt for the items they'd taken,” Omar said, noting the lengthy search.
She said she was unable to call her attorney until about an hour into the operation and spent that time sitting on the couch and staring at the warrant, which she said covered electronics.
Omar described the search as intrusive but said the agents behaved in a “decent” manner. She also said they did a “really good job” of putting everything back in its place, even folding some of her clothes.
Newsweek reached out to the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Omar’s office for comment.
During the interview, Omar addressed long-running allegations that she married her brother, saying she was not aware of being related to her former husband.
The congresswoman traced the rumor to a Somali blog post that she said right-wing conspiracy theorists in Minneapolis later picked up, pointing to “random people” who claimed she had introduced them to the man.
"They just kind of went and found random people who were like, 'she introduced us. She introduced him to us and said he was her brother,' which is, you know, insane. I mean, I don't know those people that they talk about," Omar said.
When Hayes asked whether she was related to the man, she replied, “Not to my knowledge.”
The exchange has circulated on social media, where users have reacted to Omar's response and the renewed attention to the long-running allegation.
Omar Says Trump Is Behind the Investigation
Omar said she believes President Donald Trump has "everything to do with it," pointing to his longstanding attacks on her and his ongoing calls for her to be deported.
“The people who knocked at my door searching for papers literally have his papers. They are the ones who processed those to come to the U.S.,” she said, referring to documents related to her late father.
The DOJ previously told Newsweek that the October 12 search was part of “an ongoing federal criminal investigation” and said that HSI had executed a judicially authorized search warrant in Washington.
The probe reportedly concerns fraud allegations involving Omar's immigration and naturalization paperwork. The congresswoman has not been charged in the investigation.
Department of Homeland Secretary Markwayne Mullin described the investigation as a “strong case” in an October 16 interview on The Charlie Kirk Show, saying agents had executed multiple search warrants and investigators expected to present their case to a grand jury. He also suggested coordinated immigration fraud could be prosecuted under federal racketeering laws.
After the raid, Washington, D.C., U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro confirmed a separate investigation into the congresswoman's financial disclosures, Newsweek previously reported.
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The investigation comes as Trump has renewed attacks on Omar's background and citizenship. At a rally in Youngstown, Ohio, on October 12, Trump criticized Omar's Somali origins and questioned her right to invoke the U.S. Constitution.
“She’s a disaster. She comes in from a country without laws, without police, without military,” Trump said.
On October 13, Trump also called Omar a “terrible person” and declined to take a position on whether he wanted her deported.
Asked by Hayes whether she believes the investigation could lead to criminal charges or an attempt to revoke her citizenship, Omar said she takes the possibility “very seriously.”
Omar also pushed back against Trump's characterization of her as wealthy, describing herself as working class and saying she lives a relatively modest life with her family.
She argued that the investigation and timing of the search were intended to frighten her and discourage people from casting their ballots ahead of the November midterm elections.
“Ultimately, their goal is to intimidate and scare people from wanting to participate and vote,” Omar said. “I think it's doing the opposite.”
Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here. Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Steven Frank and Edward T. Cummins