Justice Department Asks Judge to Keep Ilhan Omar Search Warrant Records Secret as Immigration Fraud Investigation Goes On

The Justice Department is pushing to keep the search warrant records from its criminal investigation of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) under seal. It warns that making them public could put the investigation at risk because agents have not yet finished carrying out the warrant.

Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg has given prosecutors until October 27 to answer requests for the documents behind this month’s search of Omar’s home in Washington, D.C.

The investigation involves suspected immigration fraud. Questions have centered on her family’s move from Somalia and on her past marriages.

Omar has not been charged with any crime, and the allegations have not been proven.

Three separate groups have asked to see the warrant documents: a coalition of 14 news organizations, The New York Times and Judicial Watch.

Prosecutors asked the court to push back their response deadlines until investigators have finished executing the warrant. They argued that protecting the investigation matters more than releasing the records right away. “Good cause exists to extend these deadlines until after the subject search warrant has been fully executed,” the department told the court.

The department also proposed that it file a status report within 30 days after the warrant has been fully carried out. It asked Boasberg to “establish a single deadline to respond to all three applications” once that point is reached.

Boasberg’s ruling on Thursday lets prosecutors “argue in part that the Court should not address the matter yet.” The groups seeking the records have until October 30 to respond to the government’s arguments.

Boasberg has repeatedly ruled against the Trump administration in other cases. Here he also agreed to the prosecutors’ request to keep a supporting memorandum sealed. That memo deals with the department’s request for more time to respond to the applications.

The judge wrote that if, after reviewing it, the court decides a redacted version of the memo should be made public, “it will so order.” For now, that filing stays secret while the larger fight over the warrant records goes on.

Prosecutors’ immediate concern is protecting investigative work that is still underway. The organizations seeking access say the records could show why a sitting member of Congress had her home searched.

Few details of the investigation have come out, but reports say investigators have obtained DNA evidence.

Court filings also identified the congresswoman as Ilhan Nur Said Elmi. That is the same surname as her former husband, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, who is suspected of being her brother. Officials confirmed that Ilhan Nur Said Elmi is her birth name and that Omar is “not her real name.”

Omar has long denied claims that her former husband is her brother. The name in the filing does not by itself prove that claim or show that immigration fraud took place.

In an interview on Wednesday, cable news host Chris Hayes asked Omar whether she was related to her former husband and whether the allegations had any truth to them. “Not to my knowledge,” she said.

For now the warrant records stay sealed as the October 27 deadline nears. The Justice Department maintains that investigators must finish their work before the court considers opening the documents to the public.