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Nearly 200 House Democrats are moving to shield Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., from further investigation after federal investigators raided her Washington, D.C., home earlier this month.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., led 175 members of the House Democratic Caucus in a letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin and Attorney General Todd Blanche criticizing the probe into Omar’s immigration history as a partisan attack and accusing them of trying to sway her bid for another term in Congress.
“Congresswoman Omar is seeking reelection in Minnesota’s 5th congressional district in just one week. News of the search warrant, whether properly predicated or not, could affect voters’ decisions, which is exactly why federal law enforcement should not engage in such conduct when voters are casting their ballots. This type of interference strips Minnesotans of their right to a free and fair election guaranteed to them under the Constitution,” the letter said.
The message ended: “We stand with Congresswoman Omar and condemn the weaponization of law enforcement against her. You have already disgraced the offices you hold, and we demand you refrain from taking any further actions that could affect the outcome of the upcoming election.”
DEMOCRATS’ FURY OVER ILHAN OMAR RAID DRAWS STINGING GOP REMINDER ABOUT RAID FROM THE PAST: ‘SET THE PRECEDENT’
Omar, D-Minn., is under federal investigation over allegations she or her father lied about her birth year on immigration paperwork to obtain her citizenship when her family fled Somalia in the late 1990s. If she was 17 when her father obtained citizenship, as previously thought, she would have automatically qualified along with him. If she was 18 or older, which federal officials now suspect, she would have had to make her own application.
FEDERAL AGENTS RAID ILHAN OMAR’S DC HOME AMID IMMIGRATION FRAUD INVESTIGATION
Her fellow House Democrats recounted the allegations in their letter, “Your probe into the congresswoman reportedly concerns her late father’s filing of immigration paperwork after she fled Somalia’s civil war at age eight, making her a U.S. citizen at age seventeen.”
But they argued it does not justify “a pre-dawn raid on her home for paperwork her father filed when she was a minor.”
DEMOCRATS HAVE ‘DIRTY HANDS’ OVER COMPLAINTS ABOUT OMAR RAID WEEKS BEFORE ELECTION, EX-PROSECUTOR SAYS
Federal agents executed a judicially authorized search warrant on Omar’s home on Oct. 12, seizing multiple phones and notebooks among other items.
“This weaponization of law enforcement to harass a sitting Member of Congress 22 days before an election is unprecedented and unacceptable,” Democrats’ Monday letter said. “DOJ has long followed a policy not to take investigative steps relating to a candidate this close to an election if delaying the action will not jeopardize a criminal investigation, a policy which Attorney General Blanche has previously invoked as far back as nine months before an election.”
ILHAN OMAR BELIEVES TRUMP RAID ON HOME WAS MEANT TO ‘INTIMIDATE AND SCARE PEOPLE’ FROM VOTING
They argued the probe was “driven by a pre-determined political outcome rather than an objective pursuit of justice.”
Omar herself has dismissed the probe as a political hit job against one of Trump’s loudest critics.
Others, however, like House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., have called for Omar to be jailed and deported if the accusations are proven true.
Fox News Digital reached out to DHS and the Department of Justice (DOJ) for comment.
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