A deleted Fatherās Day post from Ilhan Omar has resurfaced, drawing fresh attention to the US congresswomanās family and identity. The 2013 post, in which Omar referred to her father as āNur Said,ā has come back into focus as federal investigators examine questions about her identity and immigration records.Rep Ilhan Omar has denied any wrongdoing in the federal probe. (Reuters)What the post saidIn June 2013, Omar wrote on X: āHappy Fatherās Day to my aabo Nur Said, I am forever grateful to Allah for giving me the best father ā¦āAs per Fox News, she deleted the post on the morning of September 19, 2019.
The Daily Caller first reported on an archived copy of it in 2019. It resurfaced after federal agents searched Omarās Washington, DC home on October 12.
The search was part of a criminal investigation into possible false statements on immigration and naturalization documents.Why the name mattersAccording to Fox News, many records call Omarās father āNur Omar Mohamed.ā One example is a post by the Congressional Black Caucus after he died in 2020. But in her deleted post, Omar called him āNur Said.ā As per Fox News, this name looks similar to the name of her former husband, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi.Some reports use āNur Saidā for her father.
New York Post story quoted Oxford University historian Mohamed Haji Ingiriis calling him āNur Said.āThe New York Post alleges her fatherās name was Nur Said Elmi Mohamed.According to Fox News, Somali names usually have three parts: the personās own name, their fatherās name and their grandfatherās name. But two people having similar names does not prove they are related.Also read: Joe Mitchell, who gave Trump āMan of the Centuryā award, faces scrutiny for racist rant about Black womenWhat Omarās office has saidFox News says a statement allegedly from Omarās spokesperson has been shared online.
It says āNur Saidā was her fatherās childhood nickname and that he used it on a public page. It also says the post was deleted because Omar and her family had received threats.Omar and her office have said many times that her former husband is not her brother.
Omar has denied any wrongdoing and has called the probe a political attack.On Thursday, a spokesperson told Fox News Digital that Omar has ārepeatedly and unequivocally deniedā the ābaseless, disgusting conspiracy theoryā that she married her brother.The spokesperson pointed to Omarās interview on MS NOW on Wednesday. She was asked there if her one-time husband could be a ādistant relative.ā Omar replied: āNot to my knowledge.āAlso read: $445 million and counting: Musk bets big on Republicans ahead of US midtermsThe name in court papersAccording to Fox News, recent court papers about the search warrant name Omar as āIlhan Nur Said Elmi,ā aka Ilhan Abdullahi Omar.
As per the report, the filing does not explain why the name appears. It also does not show that Omar used a false identity.Omar told Fox News Digital on Friday that her āreal nameā is āIlhan Abdullahi Omar,ā not āIlhan Nur Said Elmi.ā She said: āIlhan Abdullahi Omar, you know it.
Itās Ilhan Abdullahi Omar.āFox News says two people who know about the probe told it that āIlhan Nur Said Elmiā may be her legal name. Omarās office disputes this.According to Fox News, Omarās marriage to Elmi ended in 2017.
She legally married Ahmed Hirsi in 2018.What the law saysFormer federal immigration judge in Minnesota told Fox News that if investigators prove Omar knowingly used a false name on federal forms, it could raise questions under the federal false-statements law, 18 U.S.C. § 1001.According to the judge, whether the law applies depends on the documents involved, how important the alleged false statement was, and whether there is proof that it was made knowingly.
