US tried to turn Ilhan Omar’s ex-guard into informant, lawyer says

Washington, United States — US prosecutors offered to help a former member of Ilhan Omar’s security detail avoid deportation if he gave them damaging information about the congresswoman, his lawyer told The New York Times .

The Justice Department, which dropped a felony charge against Abdullahi Mohamed in September, told the Times that his case was “completely unrelated to any current investigations”.

Mohamed’s lawyer, Bruce Rivers, said prosecutors told him the investigation into Omar was “100 per cent being run by 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.” — the White House address.

President Donald Trump called Omar “one of the ringleaders” and urged investigators to look into her as he launched a federal anti-fraud task force in March.

Later in March, Vice President JD Vance accused Omar of immigration fraud in an interview with conservative commentator Benny Johnson . He said he had discussed possible legal action with Stephen Miller, whom Trump named White House chief of staff on November 6 .

Asked in October about the search of Omar’s Washington home, Trump denied any role in the operation .

Omar’s spokeswoman, Jackie Rogers, said the congresswoman had never employed Mohamed directly. She called the alleged offer “a staggering abuse of presidential power” and accused the administration of using the federal government to intimidate political opponents.

Rivers said Mohamed told prosecutors he had briefly guarded Omar during her visit to Puntland, in north-eastern Somalia, and that the two barely knew each other. Mohamed had also visited her Capitol Hill office, the Times reported.

The $10,000 payment

Rivers said the offer came at a March meeting where prosecutors asked Mohamed about Omar’s marriages and how she came to the United States.

They also raised a $10,000 payment involving Omar and one of Mohamed’s brothers, which they described as a possible bribe.

Mohamed later told prosecutors his brother had said the payment settled a loan, according to Rivers. Rogers declined to answer the Times’s questions about the transaction.

Rivers said the thrust of the questioning was “give us everything and anything”. He said Mohamed tried to help but had no incriminating information about Omar.

Mohamed, who holds Somali and British citizenship, applied for permanent US residency after marrying a US citizen in Minnesota.

The Times, citing two people familiar with the case, said investigators saw his application as a means of gathering evidence about Omar.

The green card interview

At his October 2025 interview, an immigration official asked Mohamed whether he had dealt with US government officials or politicians and whether he had worked for Somalia’s government while in the United States.

Mohamed answered no to both questions. Rivers said he had misunderstood them because of his limited English.

Immigration authorities denied the application. In February, the Justice Department sent Mohamed a letter saying he was under criminal investigation over his answers, the Times reported.

A federal grand jury in Minnesota indicted Mohamed in April on a charge of making a false statement under oath, which carries up to five years in prison . The court set an October trial date.

Two senior prosecutors handled the case, according to court records cited by the Times. They headed the criminal division and the fraud and public corruption section in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota.

Both were early in their careers and had moved into leadership roles after several veteran prosecutors quit early in the year in protest over the office’s handling of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, the Times reported.

Ryan Wood, a former federal prosecutor and immigration judge in Minnesota, told the Times it was highly unusual to bring criminal charges over what an applicant said in a green card interview.

He questioned whether prosecutors could prove Mohamed had knowingly lied, given his limited English and the broad wording of the questions.

Wood said the offer of immigration help would also have weakened Mohamed’s credibility had he agreed to testify against Omar.

Grand jury testimony

Rivers said Mohamed testified before a grand jury in Washington on September 3 as part of the Omar inquiry. Prosecutors had offered him immunity for statements that could incriminate him.

Prosecutors asked a judge to dismiss the indictment the next day. They said immigration authorities had started deportation proceedings against Mohamed in August and that his expected removal made further prosecution unnecessary, according to a filing cited by the Times.

The head of the criminal division resigned the week the court dismissed the case, the Times reported. The newspaper cited an email to colleagues in which he said no immediate issue had prompted his departure.

Mohamed left the United States soon after the dismissal, while his wife, a nursing student, stayed behind, Rivers said.

The Times reached Mohamed by phone in Nairobi last week. He declined to discuss the case and said he intended to speak about it when he was ready.

Omar’s immigration inquiry

Homeland Security agents searched Omar’s Washington home on October 12, bringing the federal immigration inquiry into public view. Authorities seized her phone and issued more than a dozen grand jury subpoenas, some to her relatives, The Associated Press reported .

The Times reported in October that investigators were examining whether Omar’s 2009 marriage was a sham intended to secure a green card for a man they suspected was her brother. Omar has repeatedly denied the allegation.

“For ten years, Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns,” Omar wrote after the search.

Investigators are also examining immigration paperwork Omar’s family filed decades ago, Reuters reported . The family fled Somalia and spent years in a refugee camp in Kenya before arriving in the United States. Omar became a US citizen in 2000.

In late October, the Justice Department opposed r equests from news organisations to unseal the warrant and related records , arguing in a court filing that disclosure would jeopardise the investigation. Prosecutors have yet to announce any charges against Omar.

Jeanine Pirro, the US attorney for the District of Columbia, said in October that her office was also examining Omar’s congressional financial disclosures.

Omar amended a filing that had overstated the value of her husband’s business interests. Her office attributed the discrepancy to accounting errors.

The Office of Congressional Conduct recommended that the House Ethics Committee dismiss allegations over the filing, The Wall Street Journal reported i n September .

Omar won a fifth term in the US House of Representatives on November 3, three weeks after the search. She took 76.5 per cent of the vote in Minnesota’s Fifth Congressional District, according to the state’s unofficial tally .