Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said his department has presented a "large case" to the Justice Department in the federal investigation of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., confirming a referral that has been building for months and that now sits in the hands of federal prosecutors.
"It is a large case that we have presented to the DOJ," Mullin said, according to Breitbart, adding that Homeland Security Investigations did extensive work on the matter before turning it over. The Justice Department is leading the investigation, which prosecutors said in a court filing this week extends beyond the congresswoman herself. "The investigation of [the Subject and] other individuals continues," they wrote in the filing, which opposed the release of records. The filing did not name anyone else or describe their possible roles.
Omar has not been charged. A grand jury weighing evidence in the case sits in Minnesota, not Washington, and subpoenas have gone out to more than a dozen recipients, relatives among them. Agents served a second warrant the same day they searched Omar's Washington residence, at the home of her sister, Sahra Noor, where boxes of documents were removed. Attorney General Todd Blanche signed off on the warrant, the filing said, and attested to its timing.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said this month that "There are several investigations going on" involving the congresswoman. Her office has also opened a separate review of Omar's financial disclosures.
Mullin rejected the charge that the case is political. "We're not weaponizing, we're not using political theater on this," he said. The DHS secretary said enforcement does not turn on a person's office or party registration, and that anyone who broke the law would be treated the same way.
More than 170 House Democrats urged the Justice Department on Monday to drop the inquiry, citing a 2019 review by the first Trump administration that found insufficient evidence of wrongdoing. Earlier this month, Mullin said investigators expected to bring the matter before a grand jury. "We had a judge sign it," the secretary said at the time.
Omar has denied wrongdoing and called the investigation politically motivated. She has also rejected the long-running allegation that she married her brother, a claim that has never been established.
Online, supporters of the probe are circulating the congresswoman's name alongside Nur Said Elmi. X user @EricLDaugh posted that Mullin "CONFIRMS DHS has referred Ilhan Omar Nur Said Elmi to DOJ after AMPLE evidence was obtained," and added that Elmi's brother apparently claimed to be gay despite their purported marriage. An Instagram post indexed this week carried a caption claiming Mullin said officials "know" Omar married her brother; the post itself shows the secretary's remarks, and the allegation remains one Omar denies.
The referral matters because it moves the matter from investigation to prosecution decision. A "large case," in Mullin's words, means a file prosecutors can act on — and the court filing shows a grand jury already collecting testimony, with subpoenas reaching family members and more than a dozen other recipients. The venue is Minnesota, meaning any charges would land in the state Omar has represented since 2019, not in the District of Columbia.
Our Take
For years, Democrats and their media allies have greeted questions about Ilhan Omar with a wall of outrage and a lecture about bigotry. Now the questions come with warrants, subpoenas and a grand jury seated in her home state. The 170 Democrats who signed a letter demanding the Justice Department drop the case are not defending the congresswoman — they are defending the idea that some members of Congress are simply above the law.
Mullin put it plainly: "We're not weaponizing, we're not using political theater on this." Compare that with the last four years, when the FBI was used to pressure parents at school board meetings and the DOJ was used as a campaign arm against Donald Trump. The difference is not subtle. When the law is applied to a sitting congresswoman after an actual judge signed an actual warrant — and after HSI investigators, not political operatives, built the file — the people screaming "weaponization" are telling on themselves.
Americans should watch two things: whether prosecutors in Minnesota convene more witnesses, and whether the financial disclosure review at Pirro's office runs parallel to the grand jury. Omar says she has done nothing wrong. Fine. Then she should welcome the chance to prove it under oath, in a courtroom, in her own district. The rest of us have to live under the same laws. So does she.
