Filing argues raid timing violated Justice Department policies and norms
The Democracy Defenders Fund, a bipartisan government watchdog, asked Special Counsel Charles Baldis on Tuesday to investigate whether the pre-dawn federal raid on Rep. Ilhan Omar’s Minnesota home this week violated the Hatch Act.
In its complaint to Baldis, the group argued that the timing and stated rationale of the search leave the federal action “unexplainable — except for as a politically motivated use of power to influence the Minnesota congressional election in violation of the Hatch Act.” It added: “A review of this matter is therefore immediately necessary.” The Hatch Act prohibits federal executive branch employees from using their official position to influence the outcome of elections.
The complaint targets the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security. Agents with Homeland Security Investigations, a branch of the Department of Homeland Security, conducted the pre-dawn raid on Monday as part of a criminal investigation reportedly tied to paperwork Omar’s late father filed when the family immigrated to the United States decades ago, when she was 12 years old. Omar immigrated with her family in 1995 and was naturalized as a U.S. citizen at age 17 in 2000. The progressive Democrat was first elected to office in November 2016, winning a seat in the Minnesota House of Representatives, before being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives two years later.
The complaint argues the timing of the search violated Justice Department policies and norms because it was conducted just days before early voting begins in Minnesota for the Nov. 3 midterm election, in which Omar is a candidate.
Three Democracy Defenders Fund officials signed the complaint: Norman Eisen, the group’s co-founder and executive chair and a former U.S. ambassador to the Czech Republic; Virginia Canter, its chief counsel and director of ethics and anti-corruption; and Christopher Swartz, its senior counsel and deputy director of ethics and anti-corruption. Richard Painter, a former associate counsel to President George W. Bush and a professor of corporate law at the University of Minnesota Law School, also signed.
Omar has long been a target of Republican criticism, including insults from President Donald Trump, who has called her “garbage” and demanded that she be “sent back from where she came from.” Critics have characterized some of those remarks as racist.
The raid drew swift condemnation from her fellow Democrats. “Donald Trump has used racist and dehumanizing language to target Ilhan Omar for nearly a decade,” Rep. Yassamin Ansari, D-Ariz., said online after the raid. “This is one more escalation in his campaign to use the power of the federal government to target anyone he perceives as a political enemy.” Ansari added: “It’s fascism and abuse of office on a scale we have never seen. This is the stuff of dictatorships.”
Omar is the latest Democrat and perceived political opponent of the president to face federal investigations. Since returning to the White House, Trump has employed the power of the executive office to impose what critics characterize as punitive measures, against targets ranging from law firms linked to his critics to sitting lawmakers, including Rep. Jason Crow and Sen. Adam Schiff, as well as former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.