So the smoke around the Ilhan Omar investigation is undeniably growing—and the speculation is rampant. But let’s take a step back for a moment. Where exactly is all this going? What do investigators need for it to actually go anywhere?
And where are they looking now?
Here’s where.
First, let’s break the case out into its two constituent parts: the immigration investigation, and the financial one.
Immigration: There are, from what I see, three avenues of investigation relative to Omar’s immigration status.
Was her father ever even nationalized? According to the reporting, when the DHS database was queried for a final certification of Omar’s father’s naturalization, it came back as, “no record.” Now, that could be because of the idiosyncrasies of transliteration from one language to another, or the fact that in many Islamic societies, a person’s father’s (and even grandfather’s) name is incorporated. But if that “no record” holds up, there is literally no theory under which Omar could be a genuine U.S. citizen. And in light of facts coming out about her father’s actual role in the Somali civil war—and whether that should have entitled him to refugee status—this is not a fanciful inquiry.
Her birth date. Even if her father does prove to have been nationalized, the fact that she came in under his status due to being 17 seems highly questionable. Were that so, why would she ensure that, in her first term in Congress, her staff changed her birth date on official Congressional records? This is, to my mind, one of the reasons that a generic “Conspiracy” charge was included on the warrant the judge signed for the search of her house.
Marriage to her brother. If you haven’t heard by now, there are a number of telling social media posts from Omar and family members that seem to indicate that Ahmed Nur Said Elmi is indeed Omar’s brother. The one most worth mentioning is a captioned photo from Ahmed himself in which he is holding Ilhan’s third child and refers to the baby as his “niece.” Ahmed’s previous social media postings (before their marriage) also refer directly to Omar as his “sister.”
The Financial Investigation. This arguably may present more trouble for Omar.
Her $30 million write-down. After the outcry elicited by her latest required congressional financial disclosure forms, which demonstrated a net worth for her and her husband of roughly $30 million, Omar filed amended forms that took her net worth down to below $100k, blaming an unnamed accountant.
Omar’s sister in Minnesota, former nurse Sahra Noor, founded something called “Grit Partners,” a global health initiative that was the recipient of roughly $20 million in funding from USAID, the Centers for Disease Control, and the World Bank. Additionally, Noor was CEO of People’s Center Clinics & Services, a nonprofit healthcare provider in Minneapolis, from July 2014 through April 2018. During and after her tenure, the following funding was reported:
After securing the $2.2 million in funding, Omar appeared at the clinic with Amy Klobuchar and Jacob Frey. The clinic boasted a pharmacy also funded by HHS; it lost its license to operate in 2017.
The Questions. That’s the basic landscape, at least as it’s been made public. Now, the questions:
Immigration. The reporting is that the feds have the DNA to demonstrate that Ilhan and Ahmed are indeed siblings.
If so, how did the feds get these DNA samples? Were they obtained in a way that is judiciable (that is, usable in court)? How did they get Ahmed’s DNA, as he is living in London?
Was Dad ever actually naturalized? What do Omar’s actual naturalization papers (if any) refer to? If she was naturalized as her father’s child, then her paperwork should refer to her father’s paperwork. Is ANY of this paperwork retrievable? Wouldn’t she save these documents herself?
Which staff members were involved in the changing of her birth date? As a grand jury has been convened and members of Omar’s family have already been subpoenaed into it, we have to ask: Have the staffers? This could support a very strong Conspiracy charge.
Financials. This is where we could see some real drama.
Who exactly was this “accountant” who botched the Omar family financials to the tune of $30 million? The excuse Omar has given is that the accountant forgot to include liabilities. What genuine accountant forgets the liabilities? And in the remote possibility that a real accountant somehow did do that: The Omar family has $30 million in liabilities? From what? A small winery that reportedly ships empty wine kegs? Can this accountant be flipped? Another candidate for the grand jury.
In light of the fact that a prior search of sister Noor’s phone provided the predicate for the search warrant on Omar’s home—what did the feds find on that phone? It must have been awfully incriminating. Further: Is all the funding provided to sister Noor’s clinics and pharmacies accounted for? Were these contracts legitimately awarded? Was the money used for what it was earmarked for? In light of the “Family Learing Center” scandal… we have concerns.
And finally, two overall questions:
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin has stated that, while Omar’s house in Minneapolis was not searched (she reportedly spends little time there) (in her own district, mind you), there were “numerous other locations” that were included in the search warrant and searched the same day that the feds hit Omar’s D.C. home. This was some search warrant this judge signed. What other locations? Storage containers? Safe deposit boxes? Relatives’ homes? The sister’s clinics? This is where the plot really thickens, and where we start thinking about that Conspiracy charge.
Why did the Biden administration close this investigation down? Recall, under the Biden DOJ, a case was opened on Omar’s financials, both campaign and personal. The feds were also reportedly looking into Omar’s contact with “a foreign national.” Now understand: it was a high bar to even open such an investigation on a sitting member of Congress—never mind a member of The Squad. Yet that predication was achieved. Who ordered it closed?
If you notice, there has been significantly less outcry over the Ilhan Omar case than what might normally be expected from the media and her fellow Democrats. There seems to very much be a “wait and see” posture obtaining now. Except for one surprise: Barack Obama.
Why would Obama, currently stumping for Abdul Al-Sayed in Michigan, insert himself so vociferously into a controversy about the legitimacy of a Dem politician’s citizenship?
It’s just… odd, is what it is.
And if you haven’t seen it, here’s a clip from this week’s Nightwatch (we went live, in this case!). Josh Ritter and I discuss the case at length, from a prosecutorial perspective.
The full Nightwatch Live can be viewed HERE (no firewall).
Ops Wire Editor
It’s Not Just Somalis. And It’s Not Just Minnesota.
The Somali fraud scandal in Minnesota is turning into one of the biggest government fraud cases in American history. Hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars have been stolen through schemes involving government assistance programs, including the notorious $250 million Feeding Our Future scandal, which has already produced 68 convictions.
But what we’re seeing in Minnesota isn’t just happening in Minnesota. Or even in America.
Across Europe, authorities are uncovering remarkably similar schemes involving migrants, organized criminal networks, and government benefits programs. And in some countries, the fraud numbers are off the charts.
Ireland
Back in July, following the murder of 43-year-old American Jamey Carney in Ireland, allegedly by a Jordanian asylum seeker, OpsDesk investigated the country’s rapidly changing crime statistics.
One finding was extraordinary.
Between 2021 and 2024, asylum applications in Ireland increased by approximately 601 %. During a roughly overlapping period, institutional fraud referrals increased by an estimated 733 %, according to our analysis of government figures.
Let’s tease some of that out. Somalis ranked fourth among Ireland’s asylum applicants in 2024. By 2025, they had moved into first place, accounting for 15.4 percent of applications. And with this, came a new development.
Two weeks ago, on October 8, Ireland’s Minister for Social Protection disclosed new figures showing that public reports of suspected welfare fraud jumped from 7,793 in 2022 to 17,077 in 2023.
That’s a 119 % increase in just one year.
Reports climbed again to 19,191 in 2024 and remained elevated at 18,792 in 2025.
There’s more. According to the Irish Examiner, the value of suspected fraudulent welfare overpayments rose from approximately €18 million in 2023 to €29 million in 2025, an increase of more than 61 %. Those figures were also confirmed in the official parliamentary record.
So in addition to the enormous institutional fraud problem we identified back in July, Ireland is now confronting substantial increases in suspected welfare-fraud losses.
And Ireland is hardly alone.
Germany
Germany has its own migrant fraud problem, and the numbers are remarkable.
According to figures from Germany’s Federal Employment Agency, organized social-benefits fraud cases increased 84 % in a single year, between 2023 and 2024, and remained elevated in 2025. Since 2022, authorities have identified more than 1,500 suspected cases, resulting in nearly 1,000 criminal complaints.
The problem has become so serious that Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government announced a national crackdown on organized welfare fraud, specifically targeting schemes involving immigration from other European Union countries.
As Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt warned on September 23, “Criminal structures are trying to make the welfare state their prey.”
And investigators have uncovered how the schemes work.
In cities such as Duisburg and Gelsenkirchen, criminal networks recruit impoverished migrants, primarily from Bulgaria and Romania, promising them employment in Germany.
They arrange sham jobs, fabricate employment documents, and put the migrants in rundown housing, sometimes charging inflated rents.
The migrants then qualify for Germany’s Bürgergeld welfare benefits, which the criminal organizers siphon off. In some cases, authorities discover that the supposed beneficiaries don’t even live at their registered addresses anymore.
Germany’s national broadcaster ARD has documented these operations, describing what has become known as the “Bürgergeld Mafia.”
And the problem has become serious enough that Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government adopted a national action plan on September 23, targeting fraudulent employment arrangements, improper benefit claims, and exploitation of immigration rules.
Across Europe
And there are plenty of other examples.
Spain: In April 2026, Spanish police busted an organized fraud operation involving fictitious companies and workers primarily of Pakistani origin. Fake employment contracts generated more than €160,000 in fraudulent Social Security benefits, sometimes collected after recipients had already left Spain. Twelve people were arrested and 36 investigated. A separate January 2026 investigation uncovered nearly €500,000 in suspected fraud involving sham employment arrangements, some used to obtain residency status.
France: In June 2026, French authorities announced convictions in a scheme involving 1,018 fraudulent welfare applications across 75 government offices in just ten months. The operators used stolen identities and falsified documents to obtain, or attempt to obtain, more than €400,000. Meanwhile, authorities identified €509 million in family-benefits fraud in 2025, up approximately 13 percent from the previous year.
Italy: In January 2025, police uncovered a €300,000 benefits-fraud scheme involving Tunisian nationals who allegedly used false Italian residency arrangements to collect government assistance while returning to Tunisia. Nine people were investigated. Then in December, another investigation identified 21 suspects, including Afghan, Moroccan, Pakistani, and Italian nationals, in a scheme involving fictitious residences and fraudulent welfare eligibility.
All of this is happening as Europe struggles with the consequences of years of open-border policies. Riots, violent demonstrations, and growing public disorder have placed enormous pressure on governments already spending billions to house and support their expanding migrant populations.
Meanwhile, countries like France are grappling with enormous debt and mounting financial pressures, even as criminal networks exploit the very public assistance programs their governments have established to support new arrivals.
So European taxpayers are not only footing the bill for housing, healthcare, and welfare benefits. They are also watching some of that money disappear into fraudulent schemes involving the populations they have admitted.
What Americans are discovering in Minneapolis, Europeans are discovering across an entire continent. And in both places, the taxpayers are paying the price.
Even the (comparatively wealthy) west cannot sustain this any longer. As we’re seeing across Europe now, that continent is at a crossroads brought on by untenable government entitlements, a restive young population, communists agitators, and organized islamists. America is not there yet. But we could be if we don’t wise up.
True Crime Girl
Elissa Slotkin's Chilling Message to Young Conservatives
Since we are in an election season, I am going to take a diversion from my usual crime articles and discuss an elected official who has put herself in an ethical quandary. Not criminal, perhaps, but not far from it. And something she could nonetheless face consequences for. I speak of Democratic U.S. Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan.
On October 13, speaking at the University of Chicago, Slotkin made some shocking remarks during a live recording of Vox’s America, Actually podcast, hosted by Astead Herndon.
Discussing how Democrats should approach investigations and oversight if they regain control of Congress, Slotkin spoke of pursuing corruption and holding Trump administration members accountable. She then said:
“I want to look at these signature cases and not just focus on the president, but on the people who enabled him. I want young people coming out of school to say, ‘Should I go work for the Trump administration? Like, that sounds fun. I might get an opportunity.’ I want them to be like, ‘Lord, that might be buying myself a ton of problems that I don’t want. And so, let me avoid participating in that.’ I want that deterrence message sent.”
Why would a sitting U.S. senator say such a thing? Directed at young people?
Undeniably, this sounds remarkably similar to the Democrats’ playbook throughout Trump’s political career. If they can’t get Trump, go after everyone close to him or anyone who worked for him. Several Trump associates have ended up in prison following criminal prosecutions. Careers—lives—have been destroyed.
Now the potential consequences. Michael Bicksel, a University of Chicago student and editor-in-chief of The Chicago Thinker, attended the event. He reported Slotkin’s remarks, which went viral, and has now filed a formal ethics complaint with the Senate Select Committee on Ethics.
Bicksel argues that Slotkin advocated using congressional investigations and potential criminal prosecutions to intimidate young conservatives considering Trump administration jobs.
He contends that her strategy went beyond punishing criminal wrongdoing: She wanted young conservatives to fear legal consequences simply for accepting government positions.
Pointing to Slotkin’s explicit desire to send a “deterrence message” to recent graduates, Bicksel asks whether her conduct improperly reflects upon the Senate, even absent a specific criminal violation. He seeks an Ethics Committee investigation and appropriate disciplinary action.
To which we say: Good for him.
Slotkin disputes the interpretation that she wants to punish people merely for working for Republicans. She maintains her comments concerned holding officials accountable for illegal conduct, corruption, or misuse of taxpayer funds. She calls the backlash “manufactured outrage.”
I’m surprised she didn’t call it a “vast right-wing conspiracy.”
This is the same senator who, along with five Democratic colleagues, thought it was a good idea to make a video reminding military personnel that they must refuse unlawful orders.
I would argue Slotkin said the quiet part out loud: She wants young people to fear investigations and legal consequences if they choose to work for the Trump administration.
I’m sure that if young students wanted to join the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and work for its candidates, she would be thrilled.
This reflects a troubling mindset among some on the political left. Political participation should not carry the threat of government retaliation simply because someone works for the opposing party.
And targeting young people before they’ve even begun their careers? Engaging in “deterrence”? Doesn’t sound very democratic to me.
Having witnessed the assassination of Charlie Kirk, multiple assassination attempts against President Trump, and threats against Supreme Court justices, political leaders should be particularly careful about rhetoric that could encourage intimidation or retaliation. Slotkin somehow seems oblivious to that.
Whether her remarks violated Senate ethics rules remains to be determined. But the Ethics Committee should take Bicksel’s complaint seriously and examine whether a sitting senator crossed an ethical line by advocating a deterrence strategy aimed at young Americans considering public service.
Consider: Despite today’s acrimony and daily political back-and-forth, can you recall any major politician on the right ever saying something similar?
If we want to remove the toxic political culture that has taken hold among some occupying positions of government power, we must vote accordingly on November 3.
Nightwatch Extra: A Conversation With Steve Hilton
In case you missed it, we are doing a series of Nightwatch Extra shows as we head into the election, to cover those candidates we believe most deserving of our endorsement. Our first: Steve Hilton, candidate for California Governor.
Hilton, former adviser to British Prime Minister David Cameron, longtime political commentator, and now Republican candidate for governor of California, is running on a platform that puts public safety back where it belongs: at the top of government’s priorities. Hilton wants to restore support for law enforcement, crack down on repeat offenders, reopen prisons where necessary, and bring accountability to a criminal justice system that too often seems more concerned with the rights of offenders than the rights of victims.
California is one of the richest, most beautiful states in the country. Yet today it’s a cautionary tale of what happens when ideology replaces common sense—especially when it comes to crime and public safety.
With the collective experience of all of us here at The Ops Desk, we don’t endorse candidates lightly on public safety. But I’ll say this: Steve Hilton has our endorsement—full stop. He understands something that should never have become controversial—that public safety is the first obligation of government, and without it, nothing else works. Not business, not education, not quality of life—nothing.
California doesn’t need another politician offering excuses for danger and disorder. It needs someone willing to restore order. And Steve Hilton has made the case that he’s that person.
Join us for a conversation with Steve Hilton Nightwatch Extra.
(Click the image for the full discussion).
Three Minute Recap: Weekly Look-Ahead for Monday, 26 October
A big Somali fraud case; does Massachusetts have a killer cop on its hands?; how serious is this threat from Iran against U.S. officials overseas? Click below!
And finally….
Easy to be a hero when no one checks the facts.
https://pjmedia.com/catherinesalgado/2026/10/25/somaliland-accuses-ilhan-of-leaking-congressional-info-to-somalia-n4958686