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In a campaign video Ilhan Omar accused the Trump administration of trying to intimidate her and other candidates before the midterms.
U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar told supporters Tuesday that a federal investigation and search of her home is an intimidation attempt ahead of the midterms.
“We’re not going to be intimidated. We’re not going to be silenced. We’re not going to be scared,” Omar said in a video posted on Facebook on Tuesday night.
The full scope of the investigation into the Minnesota congresswoman is unclear. Federal agents raided Omar’s Washington, D.C., home last week and seized her phone. The Wall Street Journal has reported the Trump administration’s ultimate goal is to strip Omar of her U.S. citizenship and deport her.
The investigation comes after President Donald Trump has repeatedly made racist comments about Somali people and Omar herself, including calling Somalia “barely a country” and the congresswoman “garbage.”
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Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has referenced an investigation into potential fraud in Omar’s family’s immigration paperwork. Separately, U.S Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro has said her office is investigating Omar’s financial disclosures.
Omar’s attorneys have written there is “no legitimate basis for any suggestion that she has violated any law concerning her citizenship status.”
Historically the Justice Department has avoided public investigations of candidates within 60 days of an election.
According to her House biography, Omar and her family fled the civil war in Somalia when she was 8 and lived in Kenya as refugees before coming to the United States in the 1990s.
Omar became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2000, according to her lawyers.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
