WASHINGTON â Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) claimed in a new interview that President Trump has a “creepy obsession” with her and is spreading “conspiracy theories” â likening the federal inquiry into her alleged immigration fraud to questions about former President Barack Obama’s birthplace.
The Somalia-born progressive is under investigation by the Justice Department, which could yank her US citizenship if issues are found with her 2000 naturalization papers. The Obama DOJ previously investigated her 2009 marriage to her alleged brother, Ahmed Elmi.
“Trump has an unhealthy and creepy obsession with me. I represent everything Trump and todayâs Republican Party seem to despise,” Omar told The Nation. “Iâm a woman, an immigrant, a refugee, a Muslim woman who wears a hijab, and someone who refuses to be intimidated into silence.”
Omar, whose DC home was raided by federal agents on Oct. 12, said Trump and other Republicans are targeting her with “racism, Islamophobia, conspiracy theories, and lies” to distract from “their own failures.”
She said that Trump’s focus on her background is similar to his agitation to force Obama to produce his birth certificate â which Obama then did in 2011 â to debunk rumors that he was born in Kenya.
“President Obama knows the world of right-wing conspiracies better than anyone. In many ways, the conspiracy world I find myself in was created around him,” Omar told The Nation.
“That is why he can so clearly see the purpose and contradictions of the lies being told about me. He knows that no amount of evidence or facts will ever be enough for these trolls, because they are not after the truth. The conspiracy itself is what drives them.”
The federal investigation of Omar focuses on whether she gained citizenship in 2000 using a false name or incorrect birthdate, and includes scrutiny into her father’s legal status in the country.
The Justice Department referred to Omar in an Oct. 21 court filing as “Congresswoman Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, a/k/a Ilhan Abdullahi Omar.”
Omar says she became a US citizen at the age of 17 when her father, Nur Omar Mohamed, was naturalized.
Some records list Omarâs birthdate as Oct. 4, 1981, while others give the same date in 1982. If the former date is accurate, Omar would have been of legal age at the time her father received citizenship and thus would have been ineligible for the minor benefit.
The Justice Department launched an investigation in 2016, under Obama, into whether Omar illegally married her brother to allow him to obtain a green card. The probe was later closed when authorities determined the alleged crime was outside a five-year statute of limitations.
