Omar's lawyers challenge legality of FBI home search as DOJ rejects claims

Lawyers for US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar have challenged the legality of a federal search of her Washington home, demanding prosecutors immediately return all seized property and the search recordings, The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.

In a letter sent late on Friday, the Minnesota Democrat’s legal team called the HSI search — early Monday under a federal judge-approved warrant — “neither justified nor lawful”, and said there was “no legitimate basis for any suggestion” that Omar, 44, had violated any citizenship law.

The letter alleged agents ignored the judge’s instructions: no advance notice to the House general counsel, no warrant copy beforehand as ordered, and Omar blocked from contacting her lawyers for more than an hour. The dispute comes three weeks before November’s midterms, in which Omar seeks a fifth term.

A Justice Department spokeswoman rejected the allegations as “riddled with false allegations and inaccuracies”: “Our attorneys and law enforcement partners complied with all court orders and legal obligations, as they always do.” DC US Attorney Jeanine Pirro said on Fox News: “That judge would not have signed that warrant unless there was probable cause.”

Separately, the New York Post reported, citing three people familiar with the matter speaking to the New York Times, that the search was prompted by a text message on the phone of Omar’s sister Sahra Noor, seized earlier this year, with the evidence heading to a federal grand jury in Minnesota over whether the family misrepresented facts when immigrating to the US in 1995.