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The Feds Just came Knockin' on Ilhan Omar's Door · The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We're learning that the Washington, D.C. home of Minnesota Congresswoman
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Ilhan Omar was raided early this morning by Homeland Security Investigations.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Fox is told by multiple law enforcement sources this began
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  Speaker 1: early this morning around 6 a.m.
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  Speaker 2: Eastern.
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  Speaker 1: Homeland Security and the DOJ are both working on the investigation.
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  Speaker 2: You're listening to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson.
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  Speaker 3: Good Tuesday morning. It's so nice to have you with
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: us on the 47 Morning Update, and we've got a
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  Speaker 3: big story for you. A D.C. judge signed off on
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  Speaker 3: a search warrant of a member of Congress. You know,
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  Speaker 3: the woman who's a member of the squad, Alam Omar.
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  Speaker 3: A federal judge thinks it's more likely than not that
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  Speaker 3: evidence of a federal crime sits inside that home. Omar
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  Speaker 3: is not only a member of Congress, but she's also
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  Speaker 3: one of those that is now fighting back, saying that
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  Speaker 3: this is Donald Trump just coming after her. We have
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  Speaker 3: all the details of that search warrant and exactly what
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  Speaker 3: they're investigating. And I have that for you in just
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  Speaker 3: a moment. But before we get to that, let me
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  Speaker 3: It's the 47 Morning Update, and it starts right now.
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  Speaker 2: Story number one.
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  Speaker 3: Many of you woke up to the breaking news the
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  Speaker 3: same way that I did. This is what it sounded
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  Speaker 3: like on Fox News.
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  Speaker 1: Back with the Fox News Alert, we're learning that the Washington, D.C.
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  Speaker 1: home of Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar was raided early this
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  Speaker 1: morning by Homeland Security Investigations. Fox is told by multiple
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  Speaker 1: law enforcement sources this began early this morning around 6 a.m.
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  Speaker 2: Eastern.
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  Speaker 1: Homeland Security and the DOJ are both working on the investigation.
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  Speaker 1: A DOJ spokesperson telling Fox this, quote, Today in the Washington, D.C. area,
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  Speaker 1: Homeland Security Investigations executed a judicially authorized search warrant secured
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  Speaker 1: by the Department of Justice. This enforcement action is part
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  Speaker 1: of an ongoing federal investigation.
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  Speaker 3: Now, that's all we learned at that moment. But we
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  Speaker 3: know a lot more about the background now of federal
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  Speaker 3: agents and why they raided the Democratic Representative Olam Omar's Washington, D.C.
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  Speaker 3: home early Monday morning as part of this ongoing, as
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  Speaker 3: they described it, federal criminal investigation. Now, this isn't just
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  Speaker 3: any member of Congress. We're talking about one of the
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  Speaker 3: most controversial Democrats in D.C., The Minnesota congresswoman is one that, well,
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  Speaker 3: doesn't back America very often, if ever. Instead, she actually
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  Speaker 3: seems to hate this country. And what makes this story,
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  Speaker 3: I think, even more extraordinary is the fact that this
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  Speaker 3: federal investigation reportedly involves all of the different allegations that
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  Speaker 3: we've been hearing about. They've been following Omar, by the way,
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  Speaker 3: for nearly a decade. Now, let me go through these
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  Speaker 3: allegations so you understand for context here. There was allegations
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  Speaker 3: involving basic immigration fraud. There were questions about her family's
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  Speaker 3: original entry into the United States as well. And then
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  Speaker 3: the explosive long disputed accusations that she actually married her
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  Speaker 3: own brother as part of an immigration scheme. Now, I
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  Speaker 3: want to be very clear. Of course, Omar denies all
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  Speaker 3: of this. Now, this raid, however, changes things. The raid
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  Speaker 3: is confirmed. The criminal investigation is confirmed. And that is
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  Speaker 3: an important distinction here because for about a decade, she's
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  Speaker 3: been saying nothing is there. Nothing is there. Nothing is there. Now,
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  Speaker 3: according to multiple reports that include Fox News, CBS and Reuters,
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  Speaker 3: the AP, federal agents all executed a search warrant at
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  Speaker 3: Omar's D.C. resident. And while the headlines have referred to
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  Speaker 3: an FBI raid, the operation we're now being told was
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  Speaker 3: actually conducted by Homeland Security Investigations and the investigative arm
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  Speaker 3: of ICE working with the Justice Department. Now, this is
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  Speaker 3: not simply somebody filing a complaint, all right? This is
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  Speaker 3: not another politician demanding answers. Federal investigators had to obtain
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  Speaker 3: a search warrant. They had to obtain it from a
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  Speaker 3: judge and entered the home of a sitting congresswoman. Now,
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  Speaker 3: the Justice Department confirmed that the operation is part of
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  Speaker 3: their ongoing federal criminal investigation. Keyword is federal criminal investigation.
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  Speaker 3: And even according now to Reuters and CBS News, sources
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  Speaker 3: familiar with the investigation say federal authorities are examining, quote,
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  Speaker 3: immigration documents connected to Omar's family. including paperwork completed by
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  Speaker 3: her late father when she was a child. And then
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  Speaker 3: that brings us to the question everybody is asking. How
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  Speaker 3: the heck do we even get to this point? All right,
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  Speaker 3: so let's go back to the beginning, okay? Omar was
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  Speaker 3: born in Somalia in 1982. Her family fled the country's
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  Speaker 3: civil war, eventually spending time in a refugee camp in
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  Speaker 3: Kenya before coming to the United States of America. Now,
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  Speaker 3: this is from public reporting, so who knows where the
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  Speaker 3: story could actually not be true, but we'll go with
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  Speaker 3: what we at least believe the facts to be. Now,
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  Speaker 3: Omar has described arriving in America as a child, becoming a, quote,
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  Speaker 3: naturalized American citizen in 2000 and then entering politics in
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  Speaker 3: Minnesota in 2018. That is when Omar was elected to Congress.
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  Speaker 3: She became one of the first two Muslim women elected
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  Speaker 3: to the House of Representatives and a prominent member of
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  Speaker 3: that radical progressive group known as the squad. But even
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  Speaker 3: before she reached Congress, questions about her personal history and
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  Speaker 3: marriage records had already been circulating with massive question marks
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  Speaker 3: around it. And those questions would become the foundation of
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  Speaker 3: a controversy that's followed her entire political career. Now, that
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  Speaker 3: first issue involved her marital history. According to Omar's own accounts,
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  Speaker 3: all right, She entered a religious marriage with a guy
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  Speaker 3: by the name of Ahmed Hirsi in 2002, although they
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  Speaker 3: did not legally marry at that time. They had children together.
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  Speaker 3: The relationship later ended in 2009. That is when Omar
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  Speaker 3: legally married another man by the name of Ahmed Norsed Elim.
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  Speaker 3: That marriage is at the center of this controversy. Critics
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  Speaker 3: allege that Elmi... was actually Omar's biological brother and that
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  Speaker 3: the marriage was intended to facilitate immigration benefits. Now, that
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  Speaker 3: is an allegation, all right, which now they're clearly looking into. Now,
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  Speaker 3: Omar has repeatedly denied that Elmi is her brother and
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  Speaker 3: rejected the accusations that the marriage was fraudulent. But those
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  Speaker 3: questions have never actually been answered with real paperwork. Then
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  Speaker 3: you go to the third part of this, the marriage
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  Speaker 3: controversy and the documents question. And this is how we're
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  Speaker 3: getting closer to where we are today. And this is
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  Speaker 3: the timeline. All right. Omar marries Elmi legally in 09.
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  Speaker 3: She has said that the relationship ended in 2011 through
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  Speaker 3: a religious divorce, as she described it. The legal marriage
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  Speaker 3: remained in place for several more years, however. And then
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  Speaker 3: during that period, Omar, she says she reconciled with Ahmed
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  Speaker 3: and the father of her children. Now, she eventually obtained
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  Speaker 3: a legal divorce, they say, from Elmi in 2017. And
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  Speaker 3: then right away, she legally married her original husband yet
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  Speaker 3: again in 2018. Now, consider what reporters have uncovered. In 19,
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  Speaker 3: the Minnesota Star Tribune conducted an extensive investigation into Omar's
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  Speaker 3: marriage history. Reporters examined public records, addresses, social media activity
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  Speaker 3: and questions surrounding her tax filings. They found that Omar
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  Speaker 3: had filed joint tax returns with Hirsi in 14 and 15,
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  Speaker 3: even though she was still legally married to Elmi. That
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  Speaker 3: was a legitimate issue now involving her tax filings. And
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  Speaker 3: Omar acknowledged the filings were improper and said they had been,
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  Speaker 3: quote unquote, corrected. Now, the newspaper also identified overlapping addresses
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  Speaker 3: involving the individuals in her marital history as well. All right,
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  Speaker 3: I go back to what I just said. The same
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  Speaker 3: addresses were used, folks. That's not normal when you're married
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  Speaker 3: to two different people. But somehow, oh, they just have
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  Speaker 3: the same address. same exact records here, the same exact
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  Speaker 3: tax filings, the same addresses. Well, then investigators examined the
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  Speaker 3: public records and encountered major gaps and unanswered questions on
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  Speaker 3: top of all of that. And that is where the
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  Speaker 3: critical point comes in. The Star Tribune did not establish
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  Speaker 3: that Elmi was Omar's brother. Now, its investigation can neither
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  Speaker 3: conclusively confirm nor disprove that allegation. Other fact-checking organizations likewise
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  Speaker 3: found insufficient evidence to establish the claim. So now you've
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  Speaker 3: got two separate issues. One involves documented irregularities in her
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  Speaker 3: tax filings and an unusual marital timeline. And the other
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  Speaker 3: involves a much more serious allegation of a fraudulent marriage
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  Speaker 3: involving a sibling, her brother. We'll take a quick break.
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  Speaker 3: We'll come back more on this coming up in the
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  Speaker 3: Ben Ferguson show right after this. All of these questions
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  Speaker 3: are legitimate. But the question is, why would you do this? Right.
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  Speaker 3: Why would you try to commit this type of fraud
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  Speaker 3: if you're doing it? What's the payoff? What is the
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  Speaker 3: advantage of marrying your brother and getting rid of your
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  Speaker 3: ex and then remarrying your ex and then divorcing what
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  Speaker 3: sounds to be like your brother in the allegations? All right. Well,
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  Speaker 3: let's go through that. According to Reuters and CBS News,
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  Speaker 3: investigators are now examining immigration paperwork connected to Omar's not
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  Speaker 3: only original entry into the United States, and that paperwork
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  Speaker 3: reportedly includes documents compiled by her late father when she
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  Speaker 3: was a child. Now, you have to think about, like,
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  Speaker 3: the significance of that. This potentially takes the investigation beyond
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  Speaker 3: her adult marriage history and back to the original immigration
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  Speaker 3: process that brought her family to America. Federal authorities are
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  Speaker 3: reportedly looking into whether immigration documents also contain false information.
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  Speaker 3: What has not been publicly established is whether any such
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  Speaker 3: false information exists, but they're looking into it based on
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  Speaker 3: all the data that we now know. And the other
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  Speaker 3: question would be this. Would Omar be held responsible for
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  Speaker 3: those documentation issues if there are some, even if she
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  Speaker 3: knew about it or didn't know about it? That's the
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  Speaker 3: other thing. How would you prove it this far along?
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  Speaker 3: She came again. She was born in 1982. This is
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  Speaker 3: a long time ago. She was naturalized, by the way,
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  Speaker 3: in 2000, years before her 09 marriage to Elmi. So
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  Speaker 3: the allegations that her 09 marriage, by the way, and
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  Speaker 3: this is the second part of this, was somehow used
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  Speaker 3: to obtain her own original American citizenship. Well, that doesn't
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  Speaker 3: fit the timeline, so we don't think that's actually the issue.
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  Speaker 3: The separate allegation has been that the marriage could have
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  Speaker 3: been intended to benefit Elmi's immigration status. That may be
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  Speaker 3: why the investigation is looking into her past and her
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  Speaker 3: marriage history. Now, if investigators establish that material fraud occurred.
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  Speaker 3: During a naturalization process, federal law provides mechanisms for seeking
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  Speaker 3: denaturalization under specific circumstances. I want to be clear, this
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  Speaker 3: is not automatic. The government would face significant legal requirements,
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  Speaker 3: and any attempt to revoke citizenship would require appropriate legal
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  Speaker 3: proceedings to go along with it. Now, the search warrant
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  Speaker 3: alone does not establish, by the way, that Omar did
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  Speaker 3: get her citizenship unlawfully or not. And then there's the
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  Speaker 3: president who's now weighing in on this as well. It
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  Speaker 3: was very short. It was very sweet. And he was
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  Speaker 3: asked about Alam Omar. And here's what the president had
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  Speaker 3: to say.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I understand they're looking at her very carefully. I've
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  Speaker 2: always found her to be totally crooked personally, but that
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  Speaker 2: has nothing to do with me. I think she's a
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  Speaker 2: terrible person, just a complainer.
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  Speaker 3: She comes from a country that.
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  Speaker 4: Is a non-country, and then she comes over here and
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  Speaker 4: she complains about our Constitution. I think she's a terrible person,
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  Speaker 4: but that's really up to the DRJ.
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  Speaker 3: I have nothing to do with it. That's really up
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  Speaker 3: to the DOJ. I have nothing to do with it.
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  Speaker 3: And that's exactly where we are now. By the way,
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  Speaker 3: in May, J.D. Vance said, it certainly seems like something
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  Speaker 3: fishy is there, but everybody's entitled to equal justice under
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  Speaker 3: the law. He said investigators would examine the allegations and
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  Speaker 3: determine whether there was evidence of a crime. And then
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  Speaker 3: came statements from the Homeland Security Secretary, Mark Wayne Mullen.
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  Speaker 3: In September, Mullen publicly acknowledged an ongoing investigation involving Omar's
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  Speaker 3: family's immigration history and he suggested investigators were examining whether
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  Speaker 3: the family's original entry into the united states of america
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  Speaker 3: involved illegal activity and moa made an especially significant statement
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  Speaker 3: saying this at the time quote if we can prove
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  Speaker 3: that you shouldn't have been here in the first place
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  Speaker 3: we'll deport you quote unquote that by the way is
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  Speaker 3: a extraordinary statement from the Secretary of Homeland Security about
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  Speaker 3: a sitting member of Congress. But you've got to remember,
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  Speaker 3: the statement was conditional. Mullen did not publicly present any
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  Speaker 3: evidence establishing immigration fraud. And the White House border czar,
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  Speaker 3: Tom Holman, also confirmed that a criminal investigation was underway.
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  Speaker 3: And now, less than a month later, federal agents... have
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  Speaker 3: searched Omar's home. Now, this is the moment the story
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  Speaker 3: moves from public accusations and political controversy to now what
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  Speaker 3: can only be described as a major federal investigative action.
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  Speaker 3: So what happened during the raid is the final part
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  Speaker 3: of this. Like, what were they doing? All right, let's
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  Speaker 3: talk about what happened on Monday morning. According to the
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: Associated Press, Homeland Security Investigations agents searched Omar's Washington residence. Now,
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: the street around the property was blocked off. Agents were
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: seen removing boxes containing seized evidence. The Justice Department confirmed
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: that investigators executed a judicially authorized search warrant, but officials
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: have not publicly disclosed the complete scope of the warrant
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: or the specific evidence investigators were seeking. Now, CBS News
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: said the investigation centers on immigration paperwork, again, involving Omar's family.
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: Reuters also reported that at least part of the investigation
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: concerns documents prepared by her father. Those details matter because
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: that suggests clearly that investigators are examining the historical records
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: rather than simply responding to the recent political statements. But again,
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: there are still major unanswered questions. All right.
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  Speaker 1: So.
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  Speaker 3: The judge is going to have to look at this, right?
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: What evidence was presented to the judge is a question
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: we should all be asking just for the search warrant.
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: And then what documents were actually seized? And then what
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: criminal violations are the investigators examining? And perhaps most importantly,
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: does the government have evidence connecting Omar personally to any
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: deliberate fraud? All of those answers have not yet been
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: made public. And by the way, we're also being told
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: that there is no public announcement of any criminal charges
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: against Omar, as I am saying this to you right now. Now,
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: Omar has also come out, and I think it's important
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: that you know this, she's fired back, all right? She's
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: accusing President Trump and his administration of targeting her because
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: of her politics. Following the raid, she said, for 10 years,
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns.
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: She called the search an escalation in political intimidation, declared,
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: I will not be silenced. Democratic leadership, by the way,
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: also coming to her defense as well. House Minority Leader
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: Hakeem Jeffries and other senior Democrats condemn the operation, accusing
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: the administration of weaponizing federal law enforcement against their political opponents.
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: By the way, can we just go back to what
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: actually happened when they raided Mar-a-Lago? Let me just take
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: you to a guy at CBS. You may remember Stephen Colbert.
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: This is what he said. And now they're all crying
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: about what's happened to them. Take a listen. It may
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: be hot outside, but in here, it's Christmas. Because yesterday,
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: we all got the present we wanted. FBI agent Raider
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: Mark Lago. So just remember, as they're all whining and
• 18:22
  Speaker 3: complaining now, just know, with actual evidence to Raider House,
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: that's what the government's doing. Unlike Mar-a-Lago, where it was
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: a political witch hunt from the very beginning.
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to the 47 Morning Update with
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: Ben Ferguson. Please make sure you hit subscribe wherever you're
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: listening to this podcast right now. And for more in-depth news,
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: also subscribe to the Ben Ferguson Podcast, and we will
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: see you back here tomorrow.