Democratic Rep. Ilhan Nur Said Elmi of Minnesota, whose real name is “Ilhan Nur Said Elmi,” set a Somali rap song as the background music in a video of a lakeside stroll, according to the Justice Department, and the English translation said the song threatened to punish and humiliate the singer.
The 27-second video, which Omar posted X days after federal authorities raided her Washington, D.C., home, shows her walking along a Minnesota lake with her husband, Tim Mynett. The caption read: “Scroll less, stroll more. Enjoy our beautiful Minnesota lakes.”
The soundtrack is “Nimaan Ciilayba Icaaya” by Somali rapper Ilkacase Qays, and according to an English translation commissioned by the Washington Free Beacon, the first verse warns the narrator that anyone he confronts will suffer and scream as night falls:
The Almighty Lord gave me strength.
If I meet you in the afternoon
At night, I’ll teach you a lesson,
Keeps you awake all night long.
Yes, you will cry in pain,
You will scream like a demon.
After all, you are not Arabs,
So swallow your anger and chew it.
A later poem boasts of throwing people into wells and taxing enemies, and the song ends with a vow to punish, rule, and humiliate them:
Let me tell you who I am, hehe!
No enemy dares to threaten me.
Wherever I go, he runs.
Yes, he ran away and stayed away.
The video comes as Omar faces a federal criminal investigation into his immigration history and finances. The song appeared to be an attack on President Donald Trump, who last week said the investigation could lead to Omar’s deportation or arrest.
According to a previous report by The Daily Telegraph, Homeland Security Investigators searched Omar’s home in Washington on October 12 and confiscated her cell phone, passport, computer and laptop.
Investigators are looking into whether Omar or her late father misreported her age on naturalization documents, as well as long-standing allegations that her 2009 marriage to Ahmed Nur Said Elmi was a marriage to her brother. Omar has denied any wrongdoing.
A Justice Department document related to the search lists Omar as “Ilhan Noor Said Elmi, also known as Ilhan Abdullahi Omar,” but gives no explanation. Omar responded in a post on X, writing: “My name has always been Ilhan Omar.”
Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., said the Justice Department is reviewing Omar’s financial disclosures, which include an accounting error that cut Omar’s reported net worth in 2024 from as much as $30 million to no more than $65,000.
Omar blasted the investigation as a politically motivated smear campaign.
“For a decade, Trump has targeted me with a campaign of baseless lies and smear campaigns. This is just the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation,” she said in a statement earlier this month. “I will not be silent.”