2026-10-14T19:39:16.372Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/14/politics/judge-limited-justice-department-access-rep-ilhan-omar-records-immigration-fraud
据多名知情人士透露，特朗普政府近日针对一项针对众议员伊尔汗·奥马尔的移民欺诈调查，申请对其住宅进行不同寻常的激进搜查。此次调查还涉及该议员涉嫌在政府文件上作虚假陈述以及可能存在的共谋行为。
但据多名了解调查情况的人士告诉美国有线电视新闻网（CNN），检察官首先必须与一名联邦治安法官周旋，这场持续多日的拉锯战此前从未被报道过。华盛顿特区地区法院法官马修·沙博周一最终在批准搜查令前，限制了司法部获取奥马尔文件的方式，原因是奥马尔作为国会议员的身份及其所享有的宪法保护。
促使此次搜查的调查内容包括，奥马尔或其已故父亲在2000年获得公民身份时是否谎报了年龄，声称自己当时为未成年人，而实际已成年。
据了解奥马尔情况的人士透露，奥马尔约12岁时以索马里难民身份移居美国，并于2000年成为美国公民。
一名消息人士告诉CNN，政府可能会试图将调查扩大为更广泛的共谋案件，并调查是否存在一个更大的团体多年来蓄意造假、故意伪造信息。
奥马尔多年来一直处于刑事调查中——包括去年特朗普就职之前。但特朗普政府进一步推进了调查，他们认为奥马尔近年来在填写护照等政府文件时多次作出虚假陈述。消息人士称，正是这一点导致了周一的搜查行动。
在选举投票结束前不到一个月的时间点进行此次搜查，包括奥马尔正在明尼苏达州争取民主党连任的期间，对其住宅的搜查非常罕见。
本月联邦政府的此次行动还有另一不同寻常之处：试图获取一名国会议员的记录——这类刑事调查工作今年被共和党政坛炒作为针对往届政府的政治风波。
作为重新启动调查的一部分，从上周五开始至少向证人发出了十多份传票，其中大多数是亲属，据了解调查情况的人士透露。
由于多年冲突和政府机构分散，索马里的政府记录和档案臭名昭著地不可靠且难以获取。
消息人士称，近几周来，司法部主张广泛获取奥马尔在华盛顿住宅中保存的记录。
司法部辩称，对于奥马尔的情况，几乎没有必要对周一从其家中获取的记录进行封存。
但消息人士表示，最终批准搜查的法官告诉司法部，根据法律这是不可能的。华盛顿特区地区法院的沙博告诉华盛顿特区的检察官，他们需要建立一个流程来筛选这些记录，以保护奥马尔的立法工作不受调查人员的干扰。
在华盛顿特区，法院根据宪法的言论或辩论条款，对国会议员的立法工作记录提供了广泛的保护。
最近几天法官与司法部之间持续多日的拉锯战此前从未被报道过。
这一事件现在可能对试图指控奥马尔犯罪的联邦调查人员以及她的竞选团队产生重大影响。
司法部此次搜查的做法尤其值得关注，因为奥马尔这位来自索马里的美国公民是被称为“进步派女团”（The Squad）的知名女性进步派议员成员，是唐纳德·特朗普总统长期且频繁的政治攻击目标，目前正在明尼苏达州竞选连任国会议员，该州的中期选举投票已经开始。
奥马尔公开称对其住宅的搜查是一场政治攻击，是由特朗普和共和党对她的仇恨引发的。
“这是一次针对政治对手的企图，将联邦执法部门武器化，”奥马尔周一在社交媒体上发帖称。“十年来，特朗普一直在用毫无根据的谎言和诽谤运动针对我。这只是他政治恐吓运动的最新升级。”
她否认有任何不当行为，且尚未被指控犯罪。奥马尔的律师未就此次报道的多次置评请求作出回应。
调查人员正在调查一项未经证实的指控，即奥马尔的前夫艾哈迈德·努尔·赛义德·埃尔米其实是她的兄弟，以此为他获取公民身份——特朗普也曾重复这一指控，奥马尔称其为“偏执的谎言”。
知情人士告诉CNN，即使该指控得到证实，相关犯罪的诉讼时效也早已过期，目前尚不清楚这在调查中会起到什么作用。
多名了解调查情况的人士表示，拜登政府时期的调查人员并未提出任何指控，奥马尔相关案件的进展远不及当前特朗普政府时期调查人员所取得的程度。
消息人士称，该案于去年重新启动，目前由副检察长办公室和明尼阿波利斯市美国检察官办公室的检察官负责。华盛顿特区的美国检察官办公室也参与其中。
如果提起任何新的指控案件，特朗普多年来针对奥马尔的言论——其中一些带有种族主义色彩——可能会使案件变得复杂。副总统JD·万斯也曾谈及与白宫副幕僚长斯蒂芬·米勒讨论此案，而白宫边境事务专员汤姆·霍曼多次在福克斯新闻频道谈论针对奥马尔的正在进行的调查。
“如果有人违反了移民规定，有人犯了婚姻欺诈或类似的罪行，无论他们是不是国会议员，没有人能凌驾于法律之上，所以我就说到这里，”霍曼在9月的一次采访中说道，当时他提到了围绕奥马尔的“正在进行的刑事调查”。
美国检察官办公室也在继续调查另一项可能涉及财务不当行为的案件，包括竞选资金相关问题。
华盛顿特区美国检察官珍妮娜·皮尔罗周二在福克斯新闻频道被问及众议院道德调查人员此前审查过的奥马尔的财务披露情况。
“这也是调查的对象之一，”皮尔罗说。“我们正在核实事实。基于这些事实，我们会追查到底。”
自华盛顿特区联邦法院监督对奥马尔住宅的搜查以来，任何依赖奥马尔个人记录的刑事调查可能会大幅放缓，同时也引发了人们对司法部公正性和政治化的担忧。
华盛顿特区地区法院的法官们对特朗普政府在刑事案件中对待宪法保护的态度越来越持怀疑态度，尤其是在那些似乎带有政治色彩的案件中。
与此同时，共和党人对拜登政府时期的司法部在过去的刑事调查中寻求国会议员的通信记录感到愤怒。国会山的共和党人和特朗普尤其批评前特别检察官杰克·史密斯在其办公室 subpoena 电话公司获取2021年1月6日美国国会大厦袭击阴谋调查相关议员的通话记录时获得保密命令。
通常情况下，司法部会避免在选举日60天内开展可能影响选举的公开调查活动。
但在此次案件中，司法部高级官员批准了周一的国土安全调查（HSI）搜查行动。
Exclusive: Judge limited Justice Department access to Rep. Ilhan Omar’s records in sprawling immigration fraud probe
2026-10-14T19:39:16.372Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/14/politics/judge-limited-justice-department-access-rep-ilhan-omar-records-immigration-fraud
The Trump administration pushed for an unusually aggressive search of Rep.Ilhan Omar’s house in recent days in an immigration fraud probe that targets the congresswoman, possible false statements made on government documents, and a potential conspiracy, according to multiple people familiar with the investigation.
Prosecutors, however, first had to contend with a federal magistrate judge, in a prolonged back-and-forth that hasn’t previously been reported. Judge Matthew Sharbaugh of the DC District Court ultimately limited how the Justice Department could access Omar’s documents in Monday’s search, before he would approve the warrant, because of her role as a member of Congress and the Constitutional protections that affords, multiple people familiar with the investigation told CNN.
The investigators’ inquiries that prompted the search include whether Omar or her now-deceased father lied about her age when she obtained citizenship in 2000, claiming she was a minor when she was of adult age.
Omar emigrated to the US as a Somalian refugee around the age of 12 and became a citizen in 2000, according to people familiar with Omar’s situation.
One source told CNN the government could try to expand the investigation into a wider conspiracy case and try to investigate if this was deception and the purposeful falsification of information over years by a larger group of individuals.
Omar has been under criminal investigations for years — including before Trump took office last year. But the Trump administration has pushed further with the belief that she has repeated false statements when filling out government documents, such as a passport, in recent years. That is what led to the search on Monday, the sources say.
The search of her home in DC was highly unusual for its timing less than a month before Election Day voting ends, including while Omar is running for reelection as a Democrat in Minnesota.
The effort is also the federal push this month has also been unusual for its attempt to access a member of Congress’ records — the type of criminal investigative work that Republicans this year have made into a political firestorm for past administrations.
As part of the renewed probe, at least a dozen subpoenas were issued beginning last Friday to witnesses, most of them relatives, according to people familiar with the investigation.
Government records and archives in Somalia are notoriously unreliable and hard to access due to years of conflict and disconnected government entities.
In recent weeks, the Justice Department argued for broad access to records that Omar kept at her home in Washington, the sources said.
The Justice Department has argued that with Omar there was little need for sequestering the records taken from her home on Monday.
But the judge who ultimately approved the search told the Justice Department that wasn’t possible under the law, the sources said. Sharbaugh of the DC District Court told prosecutors from DC they would need to set up a process for screening the records to protect Omar’s legislative work from investigators.
In DC, the courts have upheld expansive protections around records of legislative work for members of Congress under the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause.
The multi-day back-and-forth between the judge and the Justice Department in recent days hasn’t been previously reported.
It may now have vast implications for both federal investigators that are looking to potentially charge Omar with a crime and for her campaign.
The Justice Department’s approach to the search also was especially notable because Omar, a US citizen originally from Somalia, is a high-profile member of the group of female progressives known as “The Squad,” a top and frequent political target of President Donald Trump and is running for re-election to Congress in Minnesota, where voting in the mid-term elections has already begun.
Omar has publicly called the search of her home a political attack prompted by the hatred that Trump and Republicans have for her.
“This is an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement,” Omar said in a post on social media on Monday. “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.”
She has denied any wrongdoing and hasn’t been charged with a crime. An attorney for Omar didn’t respond to multiple requests for this story.
Investigators are looking into an unsubstantiated claim around whether her now ex-husband, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, was her brother, in order to get him citizenship — a claim that has been repeated by Trump and which Omar has called “bigoted lies.”
Even if substantiated, the statute of limitations would have long run out over any crime, and it’s unclear what role that would play in the inquiry, informed sources told CNN.
No charges were brought by the Biden-era investigators and the case around Omar didn’t progress nearly as far as the current Trump-era investigators have taken it, several people familiar with the investigation said.
The case was reopened last year and is now being led by prosecutors in the deputy attorney general’s office and in the US attorney’s office in Minneapolis, the sources said. The US Attorney’s Office in Washington, DC, has also been involved.
Any new case, if charged, would likely be complicated by Trump’s rhetoric against Omar, over many years and some of it being racist. Vice President JD Vance has also talked about discussing the case with White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, and White House border czar Tom Homan has repeatedly talked on Fox News about an ongoing investigation into Omar.
“If someone committed immigration violation, someone committed marriage fraud or anything like that, regardless if they’re a congressman or not, no one’s above the law, so I’ll leave it at that,” Homan said in a September interview after mentioning an “ongoing criminal investigation” around Omar.
A separate investigation of possible financial misconduct, including around campaign finance, also continues in the DC US attorney’s office.
DC US Attorney Jeanine Pirro was asked on Tuesday on Fox News about Omar’s financial disclosures that House ethics investigators previously scrutinized.
“That is the subject of an investigation as well,” Pirro said. “We’re looking at the facts. Based upon the facts we will follow them wherever they take us.”
Since the DC federal court’s oversight of the search of Omar’s home, any criminal investigation that would rely on her own records may be slowed down substantially, and has already raised concerns about Justice Department integrity and politicization.
Judges in the DC District Court have grown increasingly skeptical of the Trump administration’s approach to Constitutional protections in criminal cases, especially when those cases appear politically charged.
At the same time, Republicans have been furious with the Justice Department under President Joe Biden for seeking Congress members’ communications in past criminal investigations. Republicans o Capitol Hill and Trump have been particularly critical of former special counsel Jack Smith obtaining secrecy orders when Smith’s office subpoenaed phone companies for call logs of members around the January 6, 2021, US Capitol attack conspiracy investigation.
Generally, the Justice Department avoids overt investigative activity that could affect an election within 60 days of Election Day.
In this case, however, top Justice officials signed off on Monday’s HSI search.