{"id":227876,"date":"2026-10-18T01:23:01","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T01:23:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ilhan-omars-attorneys-say-federal-search-of-her-home-was-neither-justified-nor-lawful-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-10-18T01:23:01","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T01:23:01","slug":"ilhan-omars-attorneys-say-federal-search-of-her-home-was-neither-justified-nor-lawful-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ilhan-omars-attorneys-say-federal-search-of-her-home-was-neither-justified-nor-lawful-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Ilhan Omar\u2019s attorneys say federal search of her home was \u2018neither justified nor lawful\u2019 – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Minnesota lawmaker\u2019s attorneys asked for return of seized items and the preservation of any recordings of search
Ilhan Omar<\/a>\u2019s attorneys have asked the US Department of Justice to return property that federal agents removed days earlier from her home during a search.
The lawyers for the Minnesota<\/a> Democrat contended that the seizure as \u201cneither justified nor lawful\u201d, according to a letter that the Associated Press<\/a> reported on Friday.
The federal investigation into Omar was launched just weeks ahead of the 3 November midterms, in which Omar is on the ballot. Democrats accused Donald Trump, a Republican, of abusing his power<\/a> as president to target a political opponent.
Omar\u2019s attorneys wrote that there is \u201cno legitimate basis for any suggestion that she has violated any law concerning her citizenship status\u201d, according to the Wall Street Journal<\/a>, which first reported on the lawyers\u2019 letter.
\u201cThis vindictive, retributive, and politically motivated criminal investigation into one of the president\u2019s chief congressional critics violates Representative Omar\u2019s constitutional rights and threatens the separation of powers,\u201d the congresswoman\u2019s attorneys wrote.
The federal government has issued<\/a> more than a dozen grand jury subpoenas, including of Omar\u2019s relatives, and seized her phone in its investigation of the congresswoman.
A justice department spokesperson said the letter from Omar\u2019s defense team was \u201criddled with false allegations and inaccuracies\u201d, according to the AP.
\u201cOur attorneys and law enforcement partners complied with all court orders and legal obligations, as they always do,\u201d the spokesperson, Emily Covington, wrote in a text message on Friday evening.
The letter from Omar\u2019s lawyers also accused the justice department of violating the agency\u2019s longstanding policy aimed at avoiding potentially influencing an election. And they raised concerns about whether the investigators followed instructions from the magistrate judge who approved the search.
The attorneys demanded in the letter that the justice department preserve any audio and video taken during the search on Monday.
The justice department launched the investigation after years of Trump and conservative media figures promoting unsubstantiated rumors that Omar\u2019s ex-husband is actually her brother \u2013 and that she married him so that he could obtain immigration status.
Omar, the most prominent Somali American in the US, has denied that allegation.
Citing sources \u201cclose to the investigation\u201d, Fox News reported that the search on Monday was related to a criminal fraud investigation concerning Omar\u2019s immigration paperwork. Omar\u2019s father filled out that paperwork when she was a child.
\u201cI\u2019m ok,\u201d Omar posted on X<\/a> after the raid. \u201cMake no mistake: this is an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement.\u201d
Omar also said the search was \u201cjust the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation\u201d.
The president has consistently launched racist attacks against Omar and other Somali Americans in Minnesota<\/a>.
In December, he described them as \u201cgarbage\u201d who \u201ccome from hell, and they complain, and do nothing but bitch\u201d.
He said Omar \u201cshould be thrown the hell out of our country\u201d.
After Monday\u2019s search, Trump denied being involved<\/a> in the investigation.
\u201cI\u2019ve always found her to be totally crooked, personally, but that has nothing to do with me,\u201d Trump said.
The Associated Press contributed reporting<\/em><\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Minnesota lawmaker\u2019s attorneys asked for return of seized items and the preservation of any recordings of searchIlhan Omar\u2019s attorneys have asked the US Department of Justice to return property that federal agents removed days earlier from her home during a search.The lawyers for the Minnesota Democrat contended that the seizure as \u201cneither justified nor lawful\u201d, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":227877,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-227876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}