Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar denied allegations of immigration fraud during a Wednesday appearance on MS Now, her first interview since federal agents raided her residence last week.
Those in Donald Trump’s orbit — cabinet officials and right-wing influencers — have promoted baseless theories about the Democratic congresswoman, accusing Omar of having a sham marriage with her brother and faking the details of her immigration documents.
Rumors of the brothers circulated on a Somali blog, Omar told MS Now host Chris Hayes, before gaining traction with right-wing conspiracy theorists in Minneapolis.
She believes the raid was intended to appease Trump loyalists.
“They kept hinting that something was going to happen to me,” Omar told Hayes. “They had to do something, I think, to say, ‘Hey, look, we raided his house.’
The Oct. 12 raid marked an escalation of a years-long feud between Omar and Trump.
The president has repeatedly disparaged Omar’s character, faith and Somali heritage, most recently on Tuesday when he called her a “sick, very dishonest person who hates our country” while answering questions from reporters at the White House.
Trump was asked if Omar could be deported due to alleged inaccuracies in her immigration documents, to which he responded: “Well, she could be. She could also go to jail.”
In the MS Now interview, Omar also shared more details about how the raid was carried out.
About 10 to 15 Homeland Security Investigations agents knocked on her door at 6 a.m. and then executed a search warrant, she said. According to Omar, after searching his residence room by room for nearly five hours, officers took away 17 items, including several phones.
“You don’t show up at someone’s house that early in the morning unless you’re trying to scare them,” Omar said.
“Obviously they would like to see me locked up and deported and everything else. But I think the biggest satisfaction for them would be for me to say, ‘I’m tired of all of you and I’m going to leave,'” she said. “I have the legal right to be a member of Congress.”
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