The investigation into whether Rep. Ilhan Omar married her brother as part of an alleged immigration fraud scheme began under former President Barack Obama in 2016, Fox News Digital confirmed. The inquiry is now drawing renewed [1] attention amid another federal investigation into the Minnesota Democrat.
A source familiar with the matter told Fox News Digital that a U.S. attorney in Minnesota, appointed by then President Joe Biden, eventually shut down the earlier probe in 2021.
GLASS HOUSES: The federal investigation into Rep. Ilhan Omar’s alleged marriage to her brother began under President Obama in 2016, Fox News Digital has confirmed.
Obama recently condemned the renewed Omar probe, but his own FBI and DHS “found some evidence that the marriage was fraudulent,” according to the New York Times.
Now the renewed federal investigation has led to a raid on Omar’s D.C. home, where authorities seized her passport, phone and computer.
Full story here https://t.co/puNta6GS5N
— Fox News Politics (@foxnewspolitics) October 29, 2026 [2]
The renewed federal investigation involves the congresswoman, who was born in Somalia, and questions about her citizenship status. Part of the inquiry centers on whether Omar or her father committed immigration fraud on her application to become a U.S. citizen.
Sources previously told Fox News Digital that Omar’s “real name” is Ilhan Nur Said Elmi. A federal court document identified her as “Ilhan Omar Nur Said Elmi, a/k/a Ilhan Omar.”
Omar was already a U.S. citizen when she legally married Ahmed Nur Said Elmi in 2009. The pair officially split in 2017.
The New York Times first reported that the FBI and Department of Homeland Security under Obama began investigating the matter during the summer of 2016. According to the newspaper, officials “found some evidence that [the marriage] was fraudulent.”
The Times reported that the investigation ended after officials determined that the potential felony crime was beyond the statute of limitations. Omar was running for the Minnesota House at the time of that investigation.
NYT reports today that the Obama DOJ first started investigating Ilhan Omar (alias) marriage to her brother ten years ago. “Federal agents in Minnesota opened an investigation, according to several people familiar with the matter. They found evidence suggesting that Mr. Elmi and Ms. Omar were siblings, according to the six former and current officials familiar with the case. But, because prosecutors did not pursue the matter, the agents had limited investigative tools, the officials said.”
After rumors of the sham marriage—it was well known in Minneapolis’ Somali community back then—threatened to derail her run for state representative, the Obama appointed U.S. Attorney for Minnesota stepped in to save her with this extraordinary letter to her attorney.
She was elected to Congress in 2018.
Andrew Luger was later rewarded with the same appointment from Joe Biden. He then worked closely with—guess who?—Lisa Monaco.
— Julie Kelly (@julie_kelly2) October 29, 2026 [3]
Despite the investigation launched during his own administration, Obama condemned the renewed probe after Homeland Security Investigations searched Omar’s Washington, D.C., home on Oct. 12, 2026. Federal authorities confiscated her passport, personal phone and computer during the search.
“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 wrote in a post on X after the raid. “But that’s exactly what the Trump Administration is doing to Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.”
Obama claimed that the Trump administration was targeting Omar because she has been a vocal critic of the current president. His argument came even as the earlier investigation launched under his administration returned to the center of the controversy.
“Think about that,” Obama wrote. “The full weight of the federal government is being brought down on a law-abiding elected official because she has dared to criticize the president.”
Omar has repeatedly described allegations that she married her brother as a conspiracy theory promoted by the political right. Her office continued that denial in a statement to Fox News Digital about the current investigation.
BREAKING — A new report shows the Obama administration found evidence that Ilhan Omar Nur Said Elmi committed marriage fraud to gain U.S. citizenship.
The New York Times reported that Obama-era FBI and HSI agents uncovered some evidence back in 2016 that her 2009 marriage was a sham to a man suspected of being her brother.
That marriage was the basis for the immigration benefit that led to citizenship. The agents flagged it during the Obama years and the file sat.
Now the federal investigation is active and the earlier findings are public. The sham marriage is the core of the citizenship fraud claim.
The Obama-era evidence is what just resurfaced.
— The Patriot Oasis™ (@ThePatriotOasis) October 29, 2026 [4]
“Rep. Omar has repeatedly and unequivocally denied this baseless, disgusting conspiracy theory,” an Omar spokesperson said. “This is a desperate political smear designed to distract from Trump’s failed presidency and two years of Republican failure in Congress. And it’s disgraceful that the media continues to give this lie oxygen.”
The same spokesperson later described the present investigation as a “political vendetta against one of Trump’s most visible critics.” The spokesperson also claimed that the 2016 investigation was “rejected for a lack of evidence.”
That account conflicts with what The New York Times reported about the earlier inquiry. The newspaper said officials had uncovered some evidence that the marriage was fraudulent but ended the investigation because the potential felony was past the statute of limitations.
The federal scrutiny has therefore returned to questions first examined while Obama was president. Omar continues to reject the central allegation, while the current investigation examines potential immigration fraud involving her citizenship application.