Multiple relatives of Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar received grand jury subpoenas, as part of the ongoing criminal investigation into her family’s history for evidence of possible fraud and false statements in their immigration paperwork, sources familiar with the matter told CBS News.
The subpoenas were issued on Friday, just days before Omar’s home in Washington, D.C., was searched early Monday morning by investigators from ICE’s investigative unit.
The subpoenas were first reported by the New York Times.
The decision by the Justice Department to take those overt investigative steps so close to the midterm elections has sparked criticism. It appears to run contrary to the DOJ’s own internal guidelines, which stipulate that federal prosecutors and agents “may never select the timing of any action” for the “purpose of affecting any election, or for the purpose of giving an advantage or disadvantage to any candidate or political party.”
Customarily, the Justice Department has operated under an unwritten, so-called “60-day rule” cited in a 2016 DOJ inspector general report. It refers to the general practice of prosecutors to avoid the public disclosure of investigative steps related to electoral matters or the return of indictments against a candidate for office within 60 days of a primary or general election.
Omar, a frequent critic of President Trump’s — and a frequent target of Mr. Trump and his allies — has denied any wrongdoing, and she has accused the Trump administration of attempting to “target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement.”
Mr. Trump said Monday that he had “nothing to do with” the raid. Sources said Attorney General Todd Blanche, however, was aware of the search. The Public Integrity Section, which handles the nation’s most politically sensitive criminal investigations, was consulted, the sources also said.
But that section was largely gutted by the Trump administration last year, with only two attorneys remaining in its ranks. It was not immediately clear what type of guidance the section may have provided to the department before the search was executed at Omar’s home.
It was also not immediately clear why the government moved to execute the warrant so close to the election, since some of the documents in question date back to Omar’s childhood and were completed by her late father.
The warrant to search Omar’s home was only approved by a magistrate judge in Washington after an extended back-and-forth discussion with Justice Department attorneys about how to address concerns stemming from the United States v. Rayburn House Office Building case, sources with knowledge told CBS News. That crucial 2007 D.C. Circuit Court case held that in a criminal investigation of a sitting member of Congress, the executive branch can’t review information that is seized in a search without allowing that member to first screen it for legislative privilege under the Constitution’s Speech and Debate clause.
Initially, the warrant did not take the Rayburn case into account because the investigators searched the congresswoman’s home and not her congressional office, but the magistrate judge ordered them to include protocols that would allow Omar and her counsel to review the materials and assert legislative privilege, one of the sources added. CBS News has not yet been able to determine who Omar’s lawyer is in this case.
Homeland Security Investigations, or HSI, the department’s criminal investigative arm, is leading the investigation, with the Department of Justice assisting.
This is at least the second active criminal investigation involving Omar and her family.
Two sources familiar with the matter previously told CBS News that the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C., is also conducting a criminal investigation into the valuation of several of her husband’s businesses — which D.C. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro confirmed during a Fox News interview this week.
The businesses run by her husband Tim Mynett came under scrutiny after financial disclosures she was required to file as a member of Congress showed the value of the businesses had jumped to being worth between $6 million and $30 million.
Omar later blamed the valuation calculations on an accounting error and filed an amended form that listed the couple’s joint assets as being valued between $18,004 and $95,000.
