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The investigation into whether Rep. Ilhan Omar, Democrat of Minnesota, married her brother as part of an alleged immigration fraud scheme in 2009 began under former President Barack Obama in 2016, Fox News Digital has confirmed.
A U.S. attorney in Minnesota, appointed by then-President Joe Biden, ultimately ended the investigation in 2021, a source familiar with the matter told Fox News Digital.
Now the issue has been thrust back into the spotlight amid a new federal investigation into the Somali-born congresswoman, part of which focuses on whether she or her father committed immigration fraud when applying for U.S. citizenship.
REP. ILHAN OMAR’S IMMIGRATION STORY FACES NEW REVIEW AS FEDERAL INVESTIGATORS ASSOCIATE PARENTS
Sources previously told Fox News Digital that Omar’s “real name” is Ilhan Nur Said Elmi. In a federal court document, she was called “Ilhan Omar Nur Said Elmi, aka Ilhan Omar.”
In 2009, Omar, then a U.S. citizen, legally married a man with that last name, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi. The couple officially separated in 2017.
The New York Times first reported that the FBI and Obama’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) launched the investigation in the summer of 2016 and that officials “found evidence that (the marriage) was fraudulent.” The Times reported that the investigation ended when authorities decided the potential crime was past the statute of limitations.
OMAR’S DELETED TWEET COULD GIVE CLUES TO ALLEGED MARRIAGE TO HIS BROTHER
Despite his own government’s investigation into Omar as she ran for the Minnesota House of Representatives, Obama condemned the new investigation, which included a Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) raid on her Washington, D.C., home on October 12. Federal authorities confiscated his passport, personal phone and computer during the raid.
U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) speaks during a get out the vote event with Democratic Senate candidate Minnesota Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan at Cedar Field Park August 8, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Flanagan and Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN) will vie for the Democratic nomination in the state’s Aug. 11 primary election. (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images; iStock)
“It is a fundamental principle of American democracy that the government cannot selectively target individuals simply because of their political beliefs or what they say,” Obama wrote in an X post after the raid earlier this month. “But that’s exactly what the Trump administration is doing to Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.”
OBAMA’S LONG REACTION TO OMAR INVESTIGATION TRIGGES INSTANT REACTION: ‘SPARE ME’
Obama claimed the Trump administration targeted Omar because she is an outspoken critic of the current president.
“Think about this,” Obama said in his message. “The entire weight of the federal government falls on a law-abiding elected official because she dared to criticize the president.”
175 DEMOCRATS ASK Trump ADMIN to Stop Ilhan Omar Investigation, Warn It Could Damage His Reelection Bid
Homeland Security Investigations police search the home of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., October 12, 2026, in Washington, DC. The search is reportedly part of an ongoing criminal investigation. (Andrew Leyden/Getty Images)
Omar has frequently called allegations that she married her brother a conspiracy theory promulgated by the political right, including in a statement to Fox News Digital regarding the new investigation last week.
“Representative Omar has repeatedly and unequivocally denied this disgusting and baseless conspiracy theory,” an Omar spokesperson said. “This is a desperate political smear designed to distract from the failure of the Trump presidency and two years of Republican failure in Congress. And it is shameful that the media continues to give oxygen to this lie.”
The same spokesperson this morning doubled down on the claim that the current investigation is a “political vendetta against one of Trump’s most visible critics,” and said the 2016 investigation was “dismissed for lack of evidence,” contrary to the New York Times report that it was closed due to the statute of limitations.
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Fox News Digital contacted an Obama spokesperson and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota.
Andrew Mark Miller of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.
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