Ilhan Omar: “I Will Not Be Silenced”
Rep. Ilhan Omar is calling yesterday’s federal raid on her Washington, D.C., home “political intimidation.” She went on to declare, “I will not be silenced.” Meanwhile, President Trump and Vice President JD Vance say they had no prior knowledge of the raid and are letting federal investigators do their job.
Rep. Omar took to X to accuse the Trump Administration of political targeting, posting:
Make no mistake: this is an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement. For ten years, Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns. This is just the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation. I will not be silenced.
Not exactly shocking statements from Omar. It is precisely what her team would probably have advised her to say. Maybe her next move is to say the Trump Administration timed this to sway the voters of Minnesota. Traditionally, the FBI has a policy, albeit not an official one, that avoids legal action within 60 days out from an election to prevent election interference.
Interference in this situation seems unlikely. I’m confident that Ilhan Omar is going to get reelected, regardless of a raid on her property or any conjecture swirling around it. In fact, I’d wager that there’s little that could come out now that would change that. In fact, she might have an even bigger turnout. This is a moment that she can use, similar to when President Trump was arrested and capitalized on it, putting his mug shot on t-shirts, etc., as a symbol of political targeting. Omar can now campaign on it.
Omar’s office posted a separate statement on X echoing the same political intimidation theory:
This raid by Trump’s DHS is an outrageous abuse of power and an unprecedented escalation in the weaponization of federal law enforcement to target political enemies. For a decade, Donald Trump has relentlessly targeted Congresswoman Ilhan Omar with inflammatory rhetoric, repeatedly putting a target on her back. Now, those attacks have escalated to a pointless federal raid. The Congresswoman has done nothing wrong. No president should be able to use the power of the federal government to intimidate his political enemies.
So again, Omar’s team is wisely taking a page out of the President’s playbook to potentially turn perception of the raid in her favor.
President Trump stated that he had nothing to do with the raid on Omar’s home and that he would let the DOJ handle the investigation. And Vice President Vance also made it clear that he had no advance notice of the raid and that he and the President “try to stay out of DOJ investigations and other prosecutions.”
Will this raid connect Omar to the Somali fraud going on in Omar’s district in Minnesota? Not yet at least. We know the fraud is real at this point, and occurred on her watch. And there have been questionable reports regarding her personal net worth.
But it’s worth noting that while investigators are only allowed to take documents relevant to their warrant, it is possible and permissible that they can seize relevant documents and upon review, discover within those relevant documents other crimes or potential crimes that can be investigated.
For now, this is all we're going to know until they sift through all the seized documents relevant to their investigation. We will keep you updated as more information becomes available.
Today’s Sekulow broadcast included more discussion with my brother, ACLJ Executive Director Jordan Sekulow, on the raid on Rep. Ilhan Omar’s home and her official response. And, we discussed Michigan’s Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate Abdul El-Sayed’s efforts to deny any personal ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.
Watch the full broadcast below: