The Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar denied allegations of immigration fraud in a Wednesday appearance on MS Now, her first interview since federal agents raided her residence last week.
Those in Donald Trump ’s orbit – cabinet officials and rightwing influencers alike – have promoted baseless theories about the Democratic congresswoman, accusing Omar of being in a sham marriage with her brother and fudging details of her immigration paperwork.
The brother rumors circulated on a Somali blog, Omar told MS Now host Chris Hayes, before it gained traction with rightwing conspiracy theorists in Minneapolis.
She believes the raid was designed to appease Trump loyalists.
“They kept alluding to the fact that something was going to happen to me,” Omar told Hayes. “They had to do something, I believe, to say, ‘Hey, look we raided her house.”
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The 12 October raid marked an escalation of a years-long feud between Omar and Trump.
The president has repeatedly denigrated Omar’s character, faith and Somali heritage, most recently on Tuesday, when he called her a “sick, very dishonest person who hates our country” while answering reporters’ questions at the White House.
Trump had been asked if Omar could face deportation over alleged misstatements in her immigration paperwork, to which he replied: “Well, she could be. She could also go to jail.”
In the MS Now interview, Omar also shared further details about how the raid was conducted.
About 15 to 25 Homeland Security Investigations agents pounded on her door at 6am, then executed a search warrant, she said. According to Omar, after scouring her residence room by room for nearly five hours, the agents took 17 items, including several phones.
“You don’t show up to somebody’s house that early in the morning unless you’re trying to freak them out,” Omar said.
“Obviously, they’d like to see me locked up, deported and all of those things. But I think the bigger satisfaction for them would be for me to be like, ‘I’m tired of all of you and I’m going to leave,’” she said. “I have a legal right to be a member of Congress.”