Ilhan Omar says federal raid was intended to intimidate her

Rep. Ilhan Omar appeared on MS Now on Wednesday, her first interview since federal agents executed a search warrant at her Minnesota residence on Oct. 12. Omar said about 10 to 15 agents entered her home at 6 a.m., searched it for nearly five hours and seized 17 items, including several phones.

“You don’t show up to somebody’s house that early in the morning unless you’re trying to freak them out,” Omar told host Chris Hayes. She added that the raid appeared designed to pressure her politically, saying, “Obviously, they’d like to see me locked up, deported and all of those things. But I think the bigger satisfaction for them would be for me to be like, ‘I’m tired of all of you and I’m going to leave.’ I have a legal right to be a member of Congress.” Omar rejected accusations circulating in right-wing circles that she entered the United States through a sham marriage with her brother and that her immigration paperwork was fraudulent. She said the rumors originated on a Somali blog before being amplified by political commentators. President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized Omar, most recently calling her a “sick, very dishonest person who hates our country” and suggesting she could face deportation or jail over alleged misstatements in her immigration documents.