Vice President JD Vance said on Friday that the Trump administration is examining how it can prove allegations that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) married her brother in an immigration fraud case.
“We actually think that Ilhan Omar definitely committed immigration fraud against the United States of America,” Vance, who has been tasked with leading an anti-fraud task force, said during an appearance on The Benny Show.
An investigation by the Washington Examiner in 2019 found dozens of documents that indicate discrepancies within the congresswoman’s marriage statements. The allegations appeared to have gained traction in 2020 when a Minnesota man told the Daily Mail the Democratic congresswoman married her brother to help him gain citizenship in the U.S. The FBI reportedly investigated the matter that year, and President Donald Trump has continued to raise concerns that the allegations could be true.
Vance told host Benny Johnson this week that he has “recently” held conversations with senior White House adviser Stephen Miller on legal avenues to “go after” Omar.
‘We’re trying to look at what the remedies are. That’s the thing that we’re trying to figure out: What are the legal remedies now that we know that she’s committed immigration fraud? How do you go after her? How do you investigate, or how do you actually do the thing? How do you build the case necessary to get some justice for the American people?” the vice president said.
Vance also questioned what information Omar allegedly knew and withheld regarding sweeping fraud federal investigators are unraveling in her home state of Minnesota.
Omar is the first person born in Somalia to serve in Congress, and her Minnesota district represents the largest Somali population in the country. Conservatives have targeted Minnesota’s Somali community as the primary perpetrators of the fraud, which mostly involved money laundering in federal and state-run welfare programs. Medicaid fraud alone likely costs taxpayers $9 billion, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson.
“I’m also worried about what does Ilhan Omar knows about what was happening in the Somali community, and why nobody was looking into it, until, frankly, Donald Trump came along,” Vance said.
POLITICALLY CONNECTED SOMALI NONPROFIT GROUP PULLED IN TAXPAYER DOLLARS AFTER MISHANDLING MILLIONS
The Justice Department is already investigating Omar after the House oversight committee launched an inquiry into Omar’s net worth, which has reportedly increased by 3,500%. Chairman James Comer (R-KY) launched the inquiry into her husband’s dealings over suspicions of corruption.
Omar’s most recent financial disclosures suggest she and her husband have a net worth of at least $6 million and as much as $30 million, after the couple said they were worth a maximum of $158,000 two years ago.