Ilhan Omar: Family Text Message on Minnesota Rep’s Sister’s Phone Triggered FBI to Raid Her DC Home

A family text message on her sister’s phone reportedly triggered authorities to raid the Washington, D.C., home of embattled “Squad” Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), according to a report. Federal investigators seized the phone of Omar’s sister, Sahra Noor, earlier this year as they probed whether the Somalia-born congresswoman had conspired to commit immigration fraud when she entered the United States, three people familiar with the investigation told the New York Times.

The messages on Noor’s phone reportedly helped investigators obtain a federal judge’s authorization for Department of Homeland Security agents to raid Omar’s home on Monday. During the search, agents seized the Minnesota Democrat’s phone, passport, notebooks and personal computers.

Strange Link

Noor, who lives in Kenya, missed a scheduled appearance in Rochester on Thursday to promote her new book, “Salt in the Snow: A Somali Immigrant Story.” She cited a “family emergency” as the fallout from the raid continued.

Before searching Omar’s home, federal agents also reportedly sifted through her garbage to obtain DNA, sources told NewsNation.

“If they are obviously trying to obtain DNA, then, yes, that is a very easy get, especially if it was discarded even in a trash can,” former FBI special agent Tracy Walder told the outlet.

Investigators are expected to present their evidence to a federal grand jury in Minnesota to determine whether Omar and her family provided false information when they immigrated to the United States in 1995. Federal authorities have also issued subpoenas to several of her relatives.

Omar and her family entered the country as refugees following Somalia’s civil war. However, her father, Nur Omar Mohamed, was a high-ranking colonel under the brutal dictator blamed for an estimated 200,000 deaths before his regime was overthrown.

Sources previously told The New York Post that Mohamed misrepresented his identity when he arrived in the United States, claiming refugee status.

Endless Problems for Omar

Omar has said she became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2000, at age 17, through her father.

Asked about investigators seizing Noor’s phone, a spokeswoman for the congresswoman avoided addressing the matter directly and instead accused Trump of targeting her for personal reasons.

“Trump has spread lie after lie about the congresswoman in a desperate attempt to justify his extraordinary abuse of power,” Jackie Rogers told the New York Times in a statement.

“This is politically motivated and an escalation of Trump‘s personal vendetta against her lasting over a decade.”