Getty ImagesMinnesota Representative Ilhan Omar has said she can no longer live in her Washington DC home after it was searched by federal agents last week, fearing her address has been exposed after the raid.
“With the death threats that I deal with, it’s not, it’s no longer going to be feasible to be in that house and have my kids,” she told MSN NOW.
In Omar’s first public interview since the pre-dawn search of her home, she detailed how Homeland Security Investigations agents seized over a dozen items, including cell phones and notebooks, as part of an investigation.
The government has not said what crime Omar is accused of but that the raid was “part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation”.
More than a dozen subpoenas have also been issued to members of Omar’s family, as part of the investigation, and it was reported that her personal computers and passport were among the items that were seized.
Recalling the hourslong raid of her home with MS NOW, Omar said: “It obviously did freak all of us out.”
Omar said agents began “pounding on the doors” of her home at around 06:00 EDT (11:00 BST) on 12 October, startling her and her husband, who were both in bed.
“We were screaming,” she said, as the couple ran downstairs to see what was happening, calling the incident “so bizarre”.
The Minnesota Democrat estimated that between15 to 25 agents encircled her home, all of whom she said “conducted themselves in a decent way”.
Agents presented Omar with a warrant at the door after she asked for one.
She then watched from the couch as agents spent roughly five hours going from room to room, Omar said, leaving with a total of 17 items, including multiple cellphones, notebooks, and her husband’s camera from the 1960s.
The BBC contacted the Justice Department for comment after being referred by the DHS.
Omar again criticised the government’s investigation, suggesting that it was meant to be intimidating.
Immediately following the raid last week, she posted a statement online where she called it “an outrageous abuse of power” and “weaponisation of federal law enforcement to target political enemies”.
Former President Barack Obama has also blasted the federal probe, saying in a lengthy statement that it was “so appalling”.
Omar, who has represented Minnesota since 2018, has long been a target of President Donald Trump’s, who has repeatedly suggested she “go back” to Somalia.
He has denied any involvement in her investigation, saying it has “nothing to do with me”.
At an Ohio rally in October, Trump referred to the search of her home, saying: “I don’t know what they’re doing with it, but I can tell you this: she’s a disaster.”
The congresswoman, however, rejected the president’s response, arguing that “he’s got everything to do with it”.
“You know, this goes back to 2019 when he was screaming about the fact that, you know, I, I need to be sent back, I need to be deported.”
