WASHINGTON — Federal agents kept Rep. Ilhan Omar from contacting her lawyer for more than an hour after they began searching her Washington home, her attorneys allege, even though she and her counsel were supposed to be handed a copy of the warrant at the outset.
The claim sits in an Oct. 16 letter to the Justice Department from Omar’s attorneys, Amy Jeffress and Joshua Matz, which CBS News reviewed. The letter accuses the department of violating a magistrate judge’s order by failing to follow protocols meant to safeguard her constitutional interests as a member of Congress during the Ilhan Omar home search that Homeland Security Investigations agents carried out on Monday.
The lawyers ask for the immediate return of her property and demand that every video and audio recording of the search be preserved. They also say agents were supposed to notify both Omar and the House of Representatives Office of General Counsel when the warrant was executed, a step they say never took place.
The Justice Department disputes the letter’s claims. In a statement reported by CBS News, a spokesperson called the letter “riddled with false allegations and inaccuracies” and said department attorneys and law enforcement partners “complied with all court orders and legal obligations, as they always do.” Leaking a letter to the press right after sending it, the spokesperson added, “is not good faith. It is a publicity play.”
The protocols have a history. CBS previously reported that the warrant was first put before a magistrate judge about a week before it was executed, and that the judge raised concerns that it contained no protocols to protect Omar’s legislative privileges under the Constitution’s speech and debate clause. Prosecutors initially argued that a 2007 D.C. Circuit ruling on screening seized material from a sitting member of Congress did not apply because the search was at her home, not her congressional office, CBS said.
The search was part of a criminal investigation into her family’s history for evidence of possible fraud and false statements in immigration paperwork, according to CBS. Her personal cellphone was among the items seized, and Omar’s relatives had been subpoenaed by a grand jury days earlier.
Her lawyers call the investigation “vindictive, retributive, and politically motivated” and say the political motivations behind it are “clear as day.” CBS noted that overt steps like these, so close to an election, appear to run afoul of internal Justice Department guidelines and have raised eyebrows among veteran former prosecutors.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin discussed the case on Friday with Andrew Kolvet, host of “The Charlie Kirk Show,” calling it a “strong case.” CBS described it as unusual for federal officials to speak that openly about an ongoing criminal investigation.
TEH has not seen the letter or the magistrate judge’s order, so the allegations and the department’s denial both reach readers through CBS News, the outlet that reviewed the letter.
