Ilhan Omar issues stunning admission when confronted with brother marriage rumors
Rep. Ilhan Omar denied Wednesday that she married her former husband Ahmed Nur Said Elmi to commit immigration fraud, but admitted she has no knowledge of any familial relation to him.
The interview marked the first time the congresswoman has spoken with the media since federal agents executed a court-authorized search warrant at her Washington, D.C., residence on Oct. 12 as part of an ongoing criminal investigation into possible false statements in her immigration and naturalization documents.
Omar denied wrongdoing and called the investigation politically motivated. She appeared publicly for the first time since the raid with a video posted to social media from the back of a car where she asked supporters to keep sending her money.
"It all started with the Somali blog," Omar told MS Now host Chris Hayes regarding longstanding rumors that they are siblings. "Somebody put it there, that he had to have been my brother or something to that effect."
Federal authorities issued more than a dozen grand jury subpoenas, including to members of Omar's family, and seized her cellphone during the investigation, according to The Associated Press.
Omar's sister, Sahra Noor, spoke with federal investigators last week in the wake of the raid.
A separate inquiry from the immigration fraud investigation is examining Omar's campaign finances and financial disclosures.
That investigation reportedly began during the Biden administration in 2024. The complaint about her massive wealth disparity in her disclosures was dismissed by congressional ethics hawks but is now being investigated by authorities outside the Capitol.
Both investigations remain ongoing.
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