Byron Donalds Sprung on Obama and Reveled What His FBI Quietly Buried About Ilhan Omar
Byron Donalds just said Obama's FBI found evidence Ilhan Omar committed marriage fraud with her brother.
A federal investigation confirms the claim and shows prosecutors let the case quietly expire.
The reason it never went anywhere traces straight back to the Obama Justice Department.
Obama's FBI Found Evidence of a Sham Marriage Back in 2016
Ilhan Omar entered a religious marriage with Ahmed Abdisalan Hirsi in 2002 and had children with him.
In 2009, while still religiously married to Hirsi, she legally married a British citizen named Ahmed Elmi.
Investigators have long suspected Elmi was actually her brother.
The New York Times reports that FBI and DHS agents investigated the marriage in the summer of 2016, during the Obama administration, and found what current and former officials described as some evidence the marriage was fraudulent.
Omar separated from Elmi in 2011 but did not finalize the divorce until 2017.
A federal court filing has since identified the congresswoman under the name Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, listed as an alias alongside Ilhan Abdullahi Omar.
This is not a new suspicion either.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune raised the same questions about the marriage back in 2019.
Writer Emily Kopp has argued that Somali naming conventions, combined with the Justice Department's case filings, point to Omar and Elmi sharing a father named Nur Said.
Investigators Searched Her Trash for DNA Evidence
Federal agents reportedly searched Omar's discarded trash for DNA from her and her relatives before raiding her Washington home, according to unnamed sources cited in recent reporting.
Those sources described the DNA evidence as critical to the investigation.
Elmi himself resurfaced this year in an unexpected way.
In an August 2026 academic paper written while he was a doctoral researcher at the University of Bristol, Elmi described himself as a "gay man of the East African diaspora."
That detail, first reported by the Daily Caller, only deepens the questions about why he and Omar entered a legal marriage in the first place.
President Trump has said using a different legal name to get sworn into Congress amounts to fraud, and he has called on Omar to resign.
A Biden Appointed Prosecutor Shut the Case Down in 2021
Prosecutors reportedly concluded the potential felony fell outside the five-year statute of limitations, which stalled the case before it ever reached a courtroom.
A source told the New York Post that the Biden administration's US Attorney in Minnesota closed the matter down shortly after 2021.
Byron Donalds argues this fits a pattern he says runs straight through the Obama years, from the Trump spying investigation to the Clinton email case to the Biden family's business dealings.
None of the officials who shelved the case in 2016, or who closed it again in 2021, have ever had to explain either decision publicly.
Border czar Tom Homan says his office is now pulling the old records and reviewing them directly.
Homan has said the evidence suggests fraud likely occurred, even as the expired statute of limitations complicates any new prosecution.
Minnesota has become ground zero for exactly this kind of federal fraud in recent years, from the Feeding Our Future scandal to a string of immigration-benefit cases prosecutors are still untangling.
Omar has represented the district at the center of that pattern since 2019.
Ted Cruz Says Omar Could Still Face Three Felony Charges
Sen. Ted Cruz says Omar faces potential criminal liability under three separate statutes if the allegations hold up.
He points to federal marriage fraud, which carries up to five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and deportation.
Cruz also points to Minnesota's felony incest statute and potential tax fraud if joint returns were filed while the legal marriage was never valid to begin with.
Asked directly about the renewed scrutiny, Omar called her critics "sick!"
She has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and insists investigators will find nothing.
An administration sat on real evidence for a decade, a Democrat prosecutor buried it the moment he got the chance, and the only reason anyone is talking about it now is that Republicans finally control the agencies that originally found it.
Sources:
- Fox News, "Ilhan Omar Lashes Out at 'Sick' Republicans for Investigating Her Alleged Marriage to Brother," Fox News, December 2025.
- RedState, "The Ilhan Omar Marriage Scandal Just Took an Even More Bizarre Turn," RedState, October 29, 2026.
- The Gateway Pundit, "Revealed: The Obama Administration Investigated Ilhan Omar and Found Evidence She Married Her Brother," The Gateway Pundit, October 2026.
- PJ Media, "NYT: Obama Admin Had Evidence of Omar's Bro-Husband," PJ Media, October 29, 2026.
