WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorneys for Rep. Ilhan Omar asked the Justice Department on Friday to immediately return property that federal agents seized from her home this week, arguing that the search stemming from an immigration fraud investigation was “neither justified nor lawful.”
In a letter obtained by The Associated Press, lawyers for the Democrat from Minnesota described the investigation as a baseless effort to go after a longtime political target of Republican President Donald Trump, noting that the search was conducted just weeks before the midterm elections, in which Omar is on the ballot.
Omar's attorneys wrote that there is "no legitimate basis for any suggestion that she has violated any law concerning her citizenship status."
“This vindictive, retributive, and politically motivated criminal investigation into one of the President’s chief congressional critics violates Representative Omar’s constitutional rights and threatens the separation of powers," Omar's legal team wrote in the letter first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
A Justice Department spokesperson said the letter from Omar's defense team was “riddled with false allegations and inaccuracies.”
“Our attorneys and law enforcement partners complied with all court orders and legal obligations, as they always do,” department spokesperson Emily Covington wrote in a text message Friday evening.
Monday's search of Omar's Washington, D.C., home this week drew swift condemnation from Democrats, as the Justice Department has historically sought to avoid public investigative actions involving a candidate within 60 days of a primary or general election.
Federal authorities seized Omar's phone in the search and have issued more than a dozen grand jury subpoenas, including to some of her relatives, a person briefed on the probe told the AP this week.
The scope of the investigation into Omar is unclear, though Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has suggested that authorities were examining potential crimes related to her family’s immigration paperwork. Separately, Washington's U.S Attorney Jeanine Pirro has said “there are several investigations going on” related to Omar and her office is probing issues concerning the lawmaker’s financial disclosures.
In the letter, Omar's attorneys accused the Justice Department of violating longstanding agency policy designed to avoid potentially influencing an election. They also raised concerns about whether the department appropriately followed all of the specific instructions by the magistrate judge who approved the search.
In addition to the return of her property, Omar's attorneys are demanding that the Justice Department preserve any audio and video that was taken during the search, according to the letter.
Omar has repeatedly refuted allegations about her marriage and immigration status raised by conservative critics, even before she joined Congress.
According to her House biography, Omar has said she and her family fled Somalia’s civil war when she was 8: “The family spent four years in a refugee camp in Kenya before coming to the United States in 1990s. In 1997, she moved to Minneapolis with her family.” She became a lawfully naturalized U.S. citizen in 2000, according to her lawyers.
Conservative online sites have alleged that Omar married a brother to commit immigration fraud. Omar has broadly denied the allegations as “disgusting lies” and called the insinuation “absurd and offensive.”
The search of her home came just days after Trump referred pejoratively to Omar at a rally in Tennessee as coming from a country of “crime and squalor” and suggested that Vice President JD Vance “and our people” were investigating her. Hours after the search, Trump told reporters he had “nothing to do” with it and it’s “really up to the DOJ.”
Homeland Security officers carry boxes from the Washington residence of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., Monday, Oct. 12, 2026, during a search. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Homeland Security officers leave the Washington residence of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., after a search, Monday, Oct. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
BEND, Ore. (AP) — A teacher threw her phone at the teenage gunman who killed four people at an Oregon elementary school, then tackled and fought with him — likely saving lives before he was shot by a father who followed him into the building, police said Friday.
City of Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz called the teacher's actions “heroic” during a news conference and said she was not injured. He identified the attacker as 16-year-old Griffin J. John II and said all of the victims were shot in the same classroom.
John was once a special needs student at Silver Rail Elementary, authorities said, and he attacked a classroom with special needs students. He fired as many as 15 shots from a 12-gauge shotgun and had about 44 rounds remaining when he was killed, Krantz said.
“Everyone wants to know why, including us,” he said. “We may never get that full answer, but we want it.”
Investigators are trying to determine how the shooter obtained the pump-action shotgun, Krantz added.
A law enforcement official briefed on the shooting told The Associated Press it was bought by his mother. The official spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the investigation.
The attacker’s mother, Shauntai Nickerson, told reporters outside her apartment near the school that if she could have done something to prevent the shooting, she would have.
“I miss my boy,” Nickerson said, sobbing and crying, according to The New York Times and CNN. “I’m so sorry, I wish I could have done something. I’m sorry for their loss.”
She declined to say how the 16-year-old obtained the pump-action shotgun and didn’t comment further when The Associated Press and other outlets knocked on her apartment door later.
In a 2020 interview with the local news station KTVZ, Nickerson identified the boy, then 10, as a participant in a special needs program run by the school district. It was called NEST, for Nurturing Empathy, Safety and Trust, and aimed at helping students experiencing intensive behavioral and social skill challenges. Nickerson said he struggled trying to learn from home during the pandemic.
The first 911 call came from the driver of a red pickup truck early Thursday afternoon who saw the boy throw his gun over a fence outside the school and then climb over it, Krantz said. The driver yelled at the boy, who fired at him, striking the truck three times. The driver was not injured.
A second driver, Kaylub Giamanco, a 36-year-old man whose children attend Silver Rail, saw John shooting at the truck and heading toward the school, where he shot through locked doors to get inside. Giamanco pulled into the parking lot, grabbed his .40-caliber pistol and followed the attacker inside. He saw John wrestling with the teacher and shot him several times.
Three children — ages 5, 8 and 11 — and teacher Megan Lambert, 25, were killed, police said. A 7-year-old child who was injured received lifesaving care at the scene and is now hospitalized, as is a 54-year-old teacher, identified by her family as Becky Drury, who was shot in the arm and hand and was recovering from surgery.
There were no other children in the classroom, authorities said.
The youngest victim was a fearless climber and a fast runner who loved reading, his aunt, Swan Sheridan, said Friday.
“He never met a stuffie that he didn’t think needed to be rescued and cared for,” she said.
In a statement read to reporters Friday, Giamanco's mother, Kenda Freeman, identified him as the person who shot the gunman. She said he is the father of two girls at the school.
“He is not seeking recognition, but instead wishes to express his gratitude to the first responders, school personnel and community for the outpouring of love and support,” Freeman said.
She said her family was asking for privacy “during this difficult time.”
Silver Rail Elementary has students in kindergarten through fifth grade, with about 450 enrolled last year.
Classes and all other activities were canceled Friday for schools across Bend, a mountain-ringed city of about 100,000 that has become a tourism and outdoor recreation hub in central Oregon.
The shooting was the 28th mass killing in the U.S. this year, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University.
President Donald Trump on Friday praised the man who stopped the gunman, calling him a “great hero" who he said “took care of business.”
“It’s a terrible thing, but thank goodness for a man that had a gun and knew how to use it,” Trump told reporters at the White House, adding the tragedy likely would have been much worse.
Memorials with flowers, balloons and stuffed animals popped up around the school, which sits in a densely packed neighborhood filled with newly built homes.
Brooke Olsen, whose daughter is a kindergartner at Silver Rail, said she was amazed that someone pursued the shooter.
“I think it’s miraculous that someone was there before law enforcement even arrived to stop further tragedy from happening," Olsen said Friday, weeping at times. "I’m feeling very grateful.”
This story has been updated to correct the name of the teacher killed Thursday. She is Megan Lambert, not Meghan Lambert as police originally reported.
Associated Press reporters Alanna Durkin Richer, Eric Tucker and Ben Finley in Washington; Jamie Stengle in Dallas; Ed White in Detroit; Philip Marcelo in New York; and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed.
Kristen Vanetsky sits outside Silver Rail Elementary in Bend, Ore., Friday, Oct. 16, 2026, a day after a deadly shooting. (AP Photo/Joe Kline)
Flowers and candles are seen at a makeshift memorial outside Silver Rail Elementary in Bend, Ore., Friday, Oct. 16, 2026, a day after a deadly shooting. (AP Photo/Joe Kline)
Children place flowers at a makeshift memorial outside Silver Rail Elementary in Bend, Ore., Friday, Oct. 16, 2026, a day after a deadly shooting. (AP Photo/Joe Kline)
People leave a family meeting area following a shooting at Silver Rail Elementary School, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026, in Bend, Ore. (AP Photo/Joe Kline)
Dara Crawford cries during a candlelight vigil at Drake Park following a deadly shooting at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Ore. on Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026. (Eli Imadali/Oregon Public Broadcasting via AP)
A person places flowers at a makeshift memorial on the other side of Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Ore., on Friday, Oct. 16, 2026, a day after a deadly shooting. (AP Photo/Haven Daley)
Flowers are placed beside a sign at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Ore., on Friday, Oct. 16, 2026, a day after a deadly shooting. (AP Photo/Haven Daley)
A person places flowers at a makeshift memorial on the other side of Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Ore., on Friday, Oct. 16, 2026, a day after a deadly shooting. (AP Photo/Haven Daley)
