Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., described herself as a member of the “working class” who lives “paycheck to paycheck” during an interview with MS NOW host Chris Hayes on Wednesday night.
“I mean, it’s, you know, working — working class, I guess, like paycheck to paycheck still,” Omar said. “We’ve got four kids, and we live, I think, like a basic life. I have a Toyota Camry that’s from 2016.”
Omar’s characterization of her finances comes despite her $174,000 annual congressional salary and scrutiny over financial disclosures that once listed assets tied to her husband as being worth as much as $30 million.
The comments came during Omar’s first public appearance since Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents searched her Washington, D.C., residence on Oct. 12 as part of an investigation into possible immigration-related offenses.
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Since the raid, the representative has used the investigation twice as a reason to publicly fundraise.
“That goes a long way as we fight Trump and his administration for trying to intimidate me and so many people right before the midterm elections,” Omar said in a video she uploaded to social media on Wednesday. “We know that they’re running scared. We’re not going to be intimidated. We’re not going to be silenced.”
The Democratic National Committee has also sent out its own fundraising email based on Omar’s campaign request for money.
“It’s Ilhan Omar — Trump’s DHS agents just carried out a raid and search of my home,” the email says. “This is a drastic escalation of the ludicrous, partisan investigation that they launched into my immigration status.”
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Omar also acknowledged during the MS NOW interview that the federal agents who searched her home were “polite” and left the property in good condition, even folding some of her clothes.
“When they left, what did you do?” Hayes asked Omar.
“I just went back around the house just trying to make sure everything was put back,” Omar replied. “And they did a really good job in putting everything back in its place. They actually even folded some of my clothing that [was] not folded. So it was … a very bizarre [situation].”
The Minnesota Democrat added that she thought the HSI agents who raided her home were “intrusive, but polite.”
“And yeah, they, they left the house, I think, you know, in good shape,” she told MS NOW.
Omar claimed during the interview that the federal agents were searching her house for four to five hours. She added that they left the raid with more than a dozen items, including notebooks and a children’s Somali-language phrasebook.
“[That] was why I was surprised when they handed me the receipt for the items that they take in, to do that long of a search and to walk away with 17 items, of like 10 that were just notebooks and, like, old phones. Was such a bizarre, bizarre thing,” Omar said.
A separate Justice Department investigation is examining Omar’s financial disclosures, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said during an appearance on Fox News’ “America Reports.”
The disclosures previously showed that the reported value of two businesses tied to Omar’s husband, Tim Mynett, rose from as much as $51,000 in 2023 to as much as $30 million in 2024, according to House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky.
Omar later amended the filing, saying the original figures were the result of an accounting error. The amended disclosure listed the couple’s assets at between $18,004 and $95,000. Omar has denied wrongdoing, and no criminal charges have been filed against her in connection with the disclosures.
Mynett’s businesses include eStCru, a winery, and Rose Lake Capital, an investment firm. The winery has reportedly shut down.
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On Fox News’ “Sunday Night in America,” Comer told host Trey Gowdy that his committee’s initial review of Omar’s disclosures identified multiple issues that could justify further investigative steps.
“First of all, not only was there a huge discrepancy in the financial disclosure form, there was the winery that was the big base of her $25 million listing on her financial disclosure form,” Comer said. “That winery has, according to the press, been shut down because of fraud.”
In a February letter to Mynett, Comer noted that Omar’s 2023 disclosure listed her stake in eStCru as being worth between $15,001 and $50,000.
“The following year, her financial disclosure form listed a stake in eStCru ‘worth between $1,000,001 and $5,000,000,’” Comer wrote. “There are serious public concerns about how your businesses increased so dramatically in value only a year after reporting very limited assets.”
A rank-and-file House member’s annual salary is $174,000. Members may also participate in the federal Thrift Savings Plan and qualify for a pension under the Federal Employees Retirement System, though eligibility and benefit amounts depend on factors including age, years of service and salary history.
The financial investigation remains ongoing.