When federal investigators close in on one of their own, House Democrats know the playbook by heart: circle the wagons and cry “weaponization.”
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., led 175 members of the House Democratic Caucus in a letter demanding the Trump administration back off its investigation of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., Fox News reports. The letter, addressed to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and Attorney General Todd Blanche, brands the probe into Omar’s immigration history a partisan attack.
Then it says the quiet part out loud. “Congresswoman Omar is seeking reelection in Minnesota’s 5th congressional district in just one week. News of the search warrant, whether properly predicated or not, could affect voters’ decisions,” the Democrats wrote.
Notice the words “whether properly predicated or not.” The letter does not argue the warrant was baseless. The complaint is that voters might hear about it before they vote.
Federal investigators are examining allegations that Omar or her father lied about her birth year on the immigration paperwork used to obtain her citizenship when the family fled Somalia in the late 1990s. If she was 17 when her father became a citizen, as previously thought, she would have qualified automatically along with him. If she was 18 or older, which federal officials now suspect, she would have had to file her own application. Fox News reports Omar also faces a second federal probe focused on her finances. She has not been charged with a crime.
Her Democratic colleagues repeated the core of the allegation in their own letter. “Your probe into the congresswoman reportedly concerns her late father’s filing of immigration paperwork after she fled Somalia’s civil war at age eight, making her a U.S. citizen at age seventeen,” they wrote. In other words, they are vouching for the very age on the paperwork that investigators now doubt.
On Oct. 12, federal agents executed a judicially authorized search warrant at Omar’s Washington, D.C., home and seized multiple phones and notebooks, among other items.
The Democrats called that “weaponization of law enforcement to harass a sitting Member of Congress 22 days before an election” and went further. “We stand with Congresswoman Omar and condemn the weaponization of law enforcement against her,” the letter said. “You have already disgraced the offices you hold, and we demand you refrain from taking any further actions that could affect the outcome of the upcoming election.”
Republicans see it differently. House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., has said Omar should be jailed and deported if the accusations are proven true.
This fight is a window into what happens when party loyalty outranks the rule of law. A judge authorized that warrant. If the paperwork was honest, Omar has nothing to fear from the investigation. If it was not, an election calendar is no reason to bury the truth. Ordinary Americans under federal investigation do not get to ask investigators to wait until after a vote, and 175 members of Congress should not be asking on Omar’s behalf.
Source: foxnews.com