Embattled U.S. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has responded to allegations that she married her brother, saying she has no knowledge that the claim is true.
“Not to my knowledge,” Omar said when asked by MS NOW host Chris Hayes whether there was any “weird kernel of truth” to the allegation during an interview.
The question refers to longstanding allegations that Omar married her brother, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, to help him obtain US immigration status. Omar has repeatedly faced scrutiny over the claims, which she has denied.
The decade-old allegations originated on a “Somali blog,” Omar explained in her first interview since federal agents raided her Washington, DC, home last week.
“Somebody put in there that, you know, he had to have been my brother or something to that effect,” the Minnesota Democrat said.
According to Omar, bloggers “went and like found random people who are like .. ‘She introduced him to us and said he was her brother,’ which is, you know, insane.”
Omar then described herself as “working class” and living “paycheck to paycheck,” when asked about her current financial situation in light of documents where Omar suggested she and her husband had a combined net worth of some $30 million, which she later claimed was a mistake and revised down.
“I have a Toyota Camry that’s from 2016. It’s our only car. I rent my DC place and my Minneapolis place, and so I mean, I don’t know, that sounds like not the majority of Congress, but there’s some of us that don’t come from wealth and don’t have wealth,” she told Hayes.
The interview comes after federal agents raided Omar’s Washington, D.C., home on October 12 as part of an ongoing criminal investigation.
The investigation reportedly centres on whether Omar or her late father provided false information on immigration documents when her family arrived in the United States as refugees from Somalia in 1995, or during the process that led to her becoming a U.S. citizen in 2000.
According to Reuters, the search warrant listed potential offences including conspiracy, immigration fraud, and making false statements on immigration paperwork.
The investigation is being conducted by federal authorities, including Homeland Security Investigations, the investigative arm of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The Associated Press also reported that investigators seized Omar’s phone and issued grand jury subpoenas to some of her relatives as part of the inquiry.
Omar, a Democratic congresswoman representing Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District, has strongly denied wrongdoing and accused the administration of using federal law enforcement to target political opponents.
Omar, the US’ first Somali American member of Congress, has served in the US House of Representatives since 2019.