Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) has a federal immigration fraud investigation bearing down on her, and her big counterattack is a shameless plea for cash.
On Tuesday night, Omar posted a roughly one-minute Instagram video from the back seat of a car, asking her supporters to keep the money flowing. It marked her first real public move since agents searched her Washington, D.C.-area home last week and walked out with her phone, notebooks, computers, and passport.
Apparently, the silence got too expensive.
"Hi everyone, Ilhan here. I just wanted to say thank you so much for the support to everyone who sent a note of support, for everyone who sent $5, $10, $20," Omar says in the Instagram video. "That goes a long way as we fight Trump and his administration, for trying to intimidate me, and so many people right before the midterm elections."
From there, she shifted into full bravado mode. "We know that they're running scared," Omar says. "We're not gonna be intimidated. We're not gonna be silenced. We're not gonna be scared."
Federal agents just confiscated her passport and personal items, and she wants you to believe the Trump administration is the one sweating? That’s cute.
Omar also promised a grand return to the campaign trail. "I'll be out there campaigning alongside all of you and making sure that we beat back all of this and that we win in the midterms, win the House, win the Senate, and hold this administration accountable," she continues.
The video’s real purpose, of course, was to ask for money.
"Thank you so much again, and please continue to support us. It is going to be a very expensive and challenging time, and so we appreciate whether you're able to send 5, 10, 20," Omar says. "Thank you."
Five bucks. Ten bucks. Twenty bucks. She mentioned those figures twice in under a minute, which tells you exactly what this video was about. She needs money.
Naturally, Omar insists the whole thing is political payback, and the left has worked itself into a frenzy over the raid. The problem is that a Democrat judge approved the search, and the investigation began on Joe Biden's watch. Omar has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, but that hasn't slowed the probe one bit.
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When you watch the video, it’s actually Omar that looks scared, and she should be. George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley believes that Omar could get deported as a result of this investigation.
"The immigration laws are very clear. When you're accused of illegally procuring citizenship or naturalization, it is not a defense that, 'I was innocent in all of this,'" he explained.
The case hinges on how old Omar really is. Omar claims she obtained citizenship via her father when she was 17, when he was naturalized in 2000. However, it appears that her staff requested a change to public records, moving her birth year from 1981 to 1982. If she were over 18 at the time, she would have had to file for her own citizenship.
But even that may be moot, as PJ Media’s Catherine Salgado reported earlier this week, Omar's father may not have been naturalized at all. Federal agency letters indicate that no naturalization records were found for Omar’s father. It’s still unconfirmed, but it’s yet another wrinkle in the story that doesn’t bode well for Omar. She is definitely going to need a lot of money.
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