Few people have dug into the background and actions of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) with more vigor than David Steinberg, and no one has gotten more of out it. Steinberg moved from PJ Media (now our sister network) to The Blaze last year, but he has continued his investigative reporting into key issues regarding Omar that the mainstream media have largely ignored. Last October, Steinberg reported that he had met with the FBI to give them information he uncovered (still unreported) that they appeared to take a serious interest in pursuing:
A formal complaint had been filed with DOJ — and DOJ actually responded. DOJ arranged a meeting w/ an FBI SAC.
I have been beyond pleasantly surprised by how receptive the FBI has been w/ me and others in this matter. (2/x)
— David Steinberg (@realDSteinberg) October 30, 2019
I have had the information I shared w/ the FBI for about a year.
Despite its value, I felt that publishing it would be an unacceptable violation of two of @IlhanMN’s family members’ privacy.
But I believe it is in the public’s best interest for the FBI to have it. (4/x)
— David Steinberg (@realDSteinberg) October 30, 2019
A little over two months later, Steinberg has updated the story at The Blaze. According to his sources, the FBI has passed the information and other data to at least two other federal agencies. One branch of the probe went to the Department of Education’s Inspector General, while another is being pursued by Immigrations and Customs enforcement. The latter’s interest may be better known, but less well known is the potential for fraudulent filings regarding student loans:
In 2017, Omar finally filed for divorce. Under penalty of perjury, she submitted a nine-question form to the court attesting to having lost all contact with her NDSU husband in June 2011.
Dozens of verified social media posts, photos, and even a 2016 interview with the NDSU husband indicate otherwise. It appears Omar perjured herself eight times answering those nine questions.
Steinberg notes the work of my friend Scott Johnson and others on the ICE angle, related to whether Omar committed immigration fraud in one of her marriages:
Concurrently — in August 2016 — Minnesota reporters Scott Johnson and Preya Samsundar were publishing extensive, verified, still-unchallenged evidence implicating Rep. Omar in multiple felonies. Their exponentially more substantial evidence was ignored by the Democratic Party and supportive media. Their evidence was even ignored by law enforcement, per an extraordinary public dismissal shortly before Omar’s 2016 election to the Minnesota House of Representatives.
FBI guidelines require only “‘articulable factual basis’ of possible criminal activity” to open an investigation. By September 2016, Johnson and Samsundar had objectively breached that threshold. Picture Comey applying his “Crossfire Hurricane” standards to their work — perhaps Omar’s trial reaches the sentencing phase before the November election.
I followed up on Johnson and Samsundar’s investigation in early 2018. A year later, the proportions of the verifiable case against Omar resemble that against a Batman villain. A comical number of likely felonies, all backed by gobsmacking evidence: Certified state and federal documents; certified UK government documents; archived state public school records; archived U.S. and UK address records; verifiably unmanipulated digital photographs; corroborating statements from Omar herself; corroborating statements from Omar’s ex-husband himself; several years of social media posts from Omar’s verified accounts; and several years of suddenly deleted social media posts from Omar’s verified accounts.
All of this leads to the conclusion that the FBI made a wise decision to at least take a look at the evidence. If they have indeed passed it along to the other two agencies, that would also be a step in the right direction. However, we should remember that law-enforcement agencies rarely if ever acknowledge subjects of ongoing investigations, and usually will not comment on them at any time unless and until charges are filed.
So far, it doesn’t appear that these agencies are close to that point. The investigative reporting done by people outside of the mainstream media has been invaluable, but it takes law-enforcement agencies to officially determine whether crimes have been committed and to distinguish reliable evidence from speculative theory. It’s possible that these three agencies are well on their way to that end, or that they’re just taking cursory looks at Steinberg’s case to just check a couple of boxes. What we do know is that it’s worth taking a close look at what he, Scott, and Preya have already turned up.
With that in mind, the only word that can describe this message from Omar today is “chutzpah”:
GAO says Trump violated the law.
A Trump associate said Trump “knew exactly what was going on.”
Ukraine is investigating whether he surveilled his own Ambassador.
Any other president would have resigned by now.
Donald Trump and all who have been implicated must step down.
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) January 16, 2020
