Prosecutors Charged Ilhan Omar’s Ex-Bodyguard While Pressing Him to Turn on Her, His Lawyer Says
Federal prosecutors filed a felony charge earlier this year against a man who briefly served as a bodyguard for Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and his lawyer says it was a bid to get him to inform on her.
The bodyguard, Abdullahi Mohamed, is accused of lying to a government official under oath, The New York Times reported. Prosecutors used statements he made during a green card interview to pressure him to provide evidence against Omar, his lawyer said.
Bruce Rivers, a Minneapolis defense lawyer for Mohamed, said prosecutors spent months pushing his client to become an informant, Quartz reported, summarizing the Times story.
Rivers said prosecutors repeatedly told him and Mohamed that the Omar investigation was “100 percent being run by 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.” He added, “I’ve never seen anything like this in my almost 28 years practicing law in federal court.”
The case offers a new look at the Justice Department’s effort to build a criminal case against Omar, who won a fifth term last week. Investigators have examined her finances as well as her family’s immigration history.
Federal agents searched Omar’s Washington home on Oct. 12. The warrant listed immigration-related offenses, including false statements and fraud in immigration paperwork, plus a broader conspiracy charge, according to the Times. Several people close to Omar were subpoenaed to a grand jury.
Part of the probe centers on whether a 2009 marriage was meant to help a man believed to be her brother obtain a green card. The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security examined that marriage in 2016 and found some evidence of fraud, officials told the Times.
That earlier case stalled mainly because prosecutors concluded the potential crime fell outside the five-year statute of limitations. Omar has denied wrongdoing and calls the investigation political persecution by President Trump.
Back on Capitol Hill this week, Omar told Fox News Digital she has not been told the basis for the probes. Asked whether DHS and the Justice Department were each investigating her, she said, “I’m not sure. You probably have more details on that,” Fox News reported.
Fox said Omar met with her lawyers, Amy Jeffress and Joshua Matz, for about two hours on Tuesday. She said “most” of the items seized in the raid, which reportedly included her phone, passport and computer, have been returned.
Searches of a sitting lawmaker’s home are rare. Stanford law professor David Sklansky said last month that the timing, three weeks before an election, raised questions under Justice Department policies against actions that could look like election meddling.
Omar has not been charged with a crime. The Justice Department has not publicly commented on the Mohamed case.
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