Rep. Ilhan Omar told MS NOW she did not marry her brother, “not to my knowledge”, days after Homeland Security agents searched her Washington home in an immigration fraud probe.

The Minnesota Democrat sat down with host Chris Hayes for her first major interview after the October 12 search of her Washington, D.C. residence. Hayes pressed her on long-running accusations that her former husband, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, was actually her brother. Omar’s answer was not a flat denial of any kinship. It was a hedge.

Hayes asked whether she was related to Elmi at all and whether there was “a weird kernel of truth.” Omar replied:

"Not to my knowledge."

The exchange came as federal investigators examine possible false statements on immigration documents tied to her birth date and paperwork completed when she was a child. Daily Mail reporting on the interview laid out her account of both the marriage claim and the pre-dawn search.

Omar married Elmi in 2009 and divorced him in 2017. She has called the brother allegation a disgusting lie. In the interview she traced it to a Somali blog, then to conservative activists in Minneapolis who, she said, found people claiming she had introduced Elmi as her brother. She said she does not know those people and called the claim insane.

Agents arrived before dawn and took 17 items

Homeland Security Investigations agents executed a judicially authorized search warrant at Omar’s D.C. home around 6 a.m. on October 12. Omar said she had slept only two and a half hours when they pounded on the doors. She thought something was on fire or that something was happening to the neighbors.

Fox News reported that the Department of Justice confirmed the action as part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation, with HSI leading the work. Omar denounced the raid as an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement. Her office called it an outrageous abuse of power. An HSI spokesperson said the enforcement action is part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation.

Omar described roughly 15 to 25 agents spending four to five hours inside. They removed 17 items, including phones, computers, notebooks, a vintage camera, and a Somali language book. She said the agents were intrusive but polite, and that they had to do something so they could say they had raided her house.

The search sits inside a wider probe. The Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office is examining whether false statements were made in immigration documents concerning Omar’s birth date. Investigators have issued more than a dozen grand jury subpoenas, including some involving her relatives. No charges or arrests are stated in the available accounts.

Sister’s phone and DNA collection shaped the warrant

The New York Post reported that text messages from the seized phone of Omar’s sister, Sahra Noor, helped secure a federal judge’s approval for the raid. Agents seized Omar’s phone, passport, notebooks, and personal computers. Investigators also collected DNA from her trash beforehand. Evidence is expected to go before a federal grand jury in Minnesota on whether Omar and family members lied upon immigrating in 1995.

Former FBI special agent Tracy Walder told that outlet that obtaining discarded DNA is a very easy get if it was left in a trash can. Subpoenas to family members underscore how far the inquiry has already reached. Readers following the case have also seen coverage of agents seizing Omar’s cellphone during the same operation.

Just the News reported that the search relates to a criminal fraud investigation into immigration paperwork filled out by Omar’s late father, Nur Omar Mohamed. Sources link the warrant to forms completed when she was a child. Omar maintains she legally obtained American citizenship at 17 through her father, who became a naturalized citizen in 2000. She said it is convenient for investigators that her father is no longer alive, so the matter can drag on forever.

That background matters because the public fight is not only about an old marriage rumor. It is about whether statements on immigration filings hold up under sworn scrutiny. Separate reporting has described compelling evidence that led agents to search the congresswoman’s home.

Trump raises jail and deportation; Omar cites a Camry and rented homes

President Donald Trump amplified the accusations and, on the Tuesday after the search, said she could go to jail. He also noted talk of deportation. Those comments track with Republican arguments that proven citizenship fraud should carry real consequences, including prison time. Coverage of his remarks spelled out that Omar could face jail, not just deportation, if fraud is established.

Omar rejected suggestions of secret wealth. She told Hayes she lives a basic, working-class life, paycheck to paycheck, with four kids. She said she drives a 2016 Toyota Camry as the family’s only car and rents both her D.C. place and her Minneapolis place. Congressional disclosure documents had appeared to value business interests connected to her husband, political consultant Tim Mynett, at roughly $30 million; that figure was later revised substantially downward, and Hayes said liabilities reduced the reported valuation to around $20,000.

After her address became public, Omar said she cannot continue to live at the D.C. residence. She framed the pressure as the outcome her critics want. Family fallout after the raid has already drawn notice, including when Omar’s daughters arrived at the D.C. home as questions grew over the probe’s next steps.

House Republicans have gone further still. The House majority whip has said prison and deportation should follow if citizenship fraud is proven, a line captured in earlier reporting on calls for prison and deportation if fraud is shown. The legal process, not cable sound bites, will decide whether any of that materializes.

A hedged answer meets a live investigation

Omar’s interview gave her a chance to close the brother-marriage file with a clean sentence. She did not. “Not to my knowledge” leaves the door cracked while she insists the story began on a blog and was inflated by activists she does not know. At the same time, federal agents with a judge’s warrant removed phones and documents, issued family subpoenas, and steered evidence toward a Minnesota grand jury on immigration filings that predate her time in Congress.

Voters can watch both tracks at once: the political charge that the raid is theater, and the investigative record of warrants, seizures, DNA collection, and grand jury process. Soft answers and hard paper rarely settle the same way.

Accountability starts with clear answers under oath, not careful phrasing on television.