Rep. Jamie Raskin, Maryland Democrat, on Tuesday condemned the federal search of Rep. Ilhan Omar’s Washington, D.C., home as a “scandalous abuse of prosecutorial and executive power” three weeks before the midterm elections.
Appearing on MS NOW’s “Morning Joe,” Mr. Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said the search violated the Justice Department’s longstanding practice of avoiding overt investigative actions that could affect an election during the final 60 days before voting. Mr. Raskin questioned what emergency justified the search, saying it appeared to concern allegations involving immigration paperwork that Ms. Omar’s late father completed decades ago.
Homeland Security Investigations agents searched the Minnesota Democrat’s Washington, D.C., home Monday. The Justice Department confirmed the agents executed a judicially authorized warrant as part of an ongoing criminal investigation but gave no other details. No charges against Ms. Omar have been announced. The department has historically followed a longstanding protocol of avoiding public investigative steps involving candidates in the run-up to an election, the Associated Press reported.
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Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said last month that an ongoing investigation related in part to whether Ms. Omar lied on her immigration forms. Ms. Omar, who has denied allegations of immigration fraud, said she will “not be silenced” and called the search the latest escalation in President Trump’s campaign of intimidation against her.
President Trump told reporters investigators were looking at Ms. Omar “very carefully” but said the search had nothing to do with him.
In a Monday statement, Mr. Raskin called the search part of a “classic Trump political harassment and frame-up operation.” He said Ms. Omar joins other Democratic lawmakers he contends have been targeted by the administration, including Rep. Maggie Goodlander, Rep. Jason Crow, Sen. Adam Schiff and Sen. Mark Kelly, and said none of those cases have succeeded.
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