Deleted 2013 tweet resurfaces in federal probe of Ilhan Omar

Federal agents searched Ilhan Omar's home in Washington on October 12 as part of a criminal investigation into possible false statements on her immigration and naturalization paperwork. Among the material now in play, according to Fox News Digital, which first obtained the court records, is a Father's Day message the congresswoman posted in 2013 and deleted six years later.

The tweet read: "Happy Father's Day to my aabo Nur Said, I am forever grateful to Allah for giving me the best father…" The name closely matches that of her ex-husband, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi. The filings tied to the search warrant refer to the congresswoman as "Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, a.k.a. Ilhan Abdullahi Omar," though the document does not explain the name and does not show that Omar used a false identity. Two people familiar with the investigation say "Ilhan Nur Said Elmi" may be her legal name. Her office disputes that; asked her real name, she replied, "Ilhan Abdullahi Omar, you know it."

The record around her father is no tidier. A Congressional Black Caucus memorial after his death in 2020, from complications with Covid-19 at 67, identified him as Nur Omar Mohamed. Oxford historian Mohamed Haji Ingiriis has referred to him as Nur Said, and told the New York Post he was "a full colonel in Siad Barre's military regime" — never an educator, and "part and parcel of those who caused and created the mayhem they 'fled.'" Fox News says it has not independently confirmed either name.

Questions about Omar's immigration records drew wide attention in 2019, when the Daily Caller reported on an archived copy of the deleted post. A spokesperson said at the time that Nur Said was her father's childhood nickname, and that Omar deleted the tweet after the family received threats. She and her office have repeatedly denied that Ahmed Nur Said Elmi is her brother; asked on television this week whether her former husband might be a distant relative, she answered, "Not to my knowledge." Her spokesperson calls the federal probe a political attack built on a "baseless, disgusting conspiracy theory."

A former Minnesota federal immigration judge notes the stakes: if investigators prove Omar knowingly used a false name on federal forms, she could face scrutiny under the federal false-statements law, 18 U.S.C. § 1001. She divorced Elmi in 2017 and legally married Ahmed Hirsi in 2018.

Omar deleted the post on the morning of September 17, 2019. The archive kept a copy, and the warrant now bears a name her office says is not legally hers.