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Obama issues statement condemning Trump's attacks on Rep. Ilhan Omar. Says other critics of Trump may be next.

Federal agents raided her home and subpoenaed her family. Investigators have yet to charge her.

Obama issues statement condemning Trump's attacks on Rep. Ilhan Omar. Says other critics of Trump may be next.
Official portrait of President-elect Barack Obama, 2009. Photo by Pete Souza, public domain, via the Library of Congress.

Former President Barack Obama accused the Trump administration Sunday of targeting Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) for criticizing the president. In a 400-plus-word post on X, he called it "appalling" and wrote that "the full weight of the federal government is being brought down on a law-abiding elected official because she has dared to criticize the president."

If this becomes "the new normal," he warned, it won't "stop with her." Obama knows the tactic: Trump spent years pushing the false claim that Obama wasn't born in the U.S.

What investigators claim, and what they've shown

Homeland Security Investigations agents searched Omar's Washington home Oct. 12 under a warrant the Justice Department tied to "an ongoing federal criminal investigation." The Wall Street Journal reported that agents took her phone, passport, and computers, that more than a dozen people were subpoenaed to a Minnesota grand jury, and that the goal is to strip her citizenship and deport her.

Omar became a citizen in 2000 through her father's naturalization, when records show she was 17. Investigators are reportedly hunting for proof she was 18, which would have required her to apply on her own.

None of it has been proven. Omar hasn't been charged with a crime, and no case to revoke her citizenship has been filed. Prosecutors would have to convince a federal judge her citizenship was "illegally procured" or obtained by "willful misrepresentation" (8 U.S.C. § 1451(a)), a high bar, legal experts told Time. Axios reported the first Trump administration reviewed similar allegations in 2019 and found too little evidence to open a full investigation.

Trump says he had "nothing to do" with the search. He also called Omar "a terrible person."

Who's standing with Omar

House Democratic leaders Hakeem Jeffries, Katherine Clark, and Pete Aguilar called the raid "deeply disturbing." Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said Trump is "abusing his power to go after political opponents weeks before an election." Sen. Tina Smith said she was "outraged," and Sen. Amy Klobuchar said the timing raises "serious questions." Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on House Oversight, called it an "authoritarian abuse of power."

Omar's answer: "I will not be silenced."

What's next

Omar is on the Nov. 3 ballot for a fifth term while the grand jury keeps working. We condemn the use of a criminal search warrant against a sitting member of Congress, weeks before an election, on a theory that has yet to produce a single charge.

Sources

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