A federal judge who has repeatedly clashed with President Donald Trump and his allies is now presiding over a dispute about whether to unseal the warrant used to search the home of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.
The dispute comes as two separate federal investigations involve the Democratic congresswoman. One centers on concerns about discrepancies between financial disclosures filed a year apart. The other concerns allegations that her father committed fraud on immigration paperwork. Omar came to the United States from Somalia in 1995 at age 12. Investigators are examining whether her father misstated her age on his 2000 citizenship paperwork, which could have allowed her to obtain citizenship through him as a minor.
Trump has long been a critic of Omar. He has also accused her of immigration fraud by alleging she married her brother, a reference to her first husband, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi. In the weeks after the Oct. 12 raid on Omar's Washington, D.C., home, Trump said she should be "put in jail."
The unsealing fight is in the hands of Chief Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, an Obama appointee and a longtime target of the president. In March 2025, after Boasberg temporarily blocked deportation flights carrying alleged Venezuelan gang members, Trump called him a "Radical Left Lunatic of a Judge, a troublemaker and agitator" and urged his impeachment. Trump also claimed it was "virtually impossible for me to get an Honest Ruling in D.C."
The search, which came just weeks before the midterm elections, was carried out by Homeland Security Investigations and the FBI under a warrant issued by U.S. Magistrate Judge Matthew Sharbaugh. It took place as alleged fraud in Minnesota's social services programs had become a major political issue in the state. Within days, three requests to unseal the warrant were filed: one from the New York Times, one from the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch, and one from 14 press organizations.
Boasberg told the Justice Department to defend its position on keeping the warrant sealed by Oct. 22, responding to a consolidated request from the Times and the press groups. He later extended that deadline after the department asked to wait until the warrant was "fully executed." The department argued that disclosure could compromise the integrity of the investigation. "This request sounds rash because it is rash," Pirro wrote, urging the court to reject it without prejudice for renewal after the warrant is fully executed and a charging decision is made public.
The filing suggested the department is still executing the warrant, and other details about the investigation and the warrant records remain redacted. The Times and the other media groups counter that the physical search took place weeks ago, and that any sensitive material should be redacted rather than the whole warrant being withheld.
Omar is also in a separate dispute with the Justice Department. Her attorneys have demanded the return of property taken from her home, arguing that agents violated protections for her congressional work. They also allege that agents did not give her a copy of the warrant and kept her from contacting her lawyers during the search.
Boasberg's role follows several rulings that drew criticism from Trump and his allies. In June 2025, he ordered federal agencies to preserve Signal messages exchanged by senior officials discussing U.S. military strikes in Yemen, saying they could be federal records. During the Biden administration's Arctic Frost investigation, he signed nondisclosure orders barring phone carriers from telling Republican lawmakers that prosecutors had subpoenaed their records.
He also faced criticism for sentencing former FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith, who pleaded guilty to altering an email used in an application to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to renew surveillance of Carter Page, a former Trump campaign adviser. Boasberg, who once served a seven-year term on the FISA Court, said the alteration undermined the court's integrity but was a misguided mistake that gave Clinesmith no personal benefit. He imposed 12 months of probation and 400 hours of community service, saying Clinesmith's place at the center of a years-long media "hurricane" had already been sufficient punishment.
