Agents of the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) work outside the residence of US Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), after US authorities conducted a raid as part of an ongoing investigation by the Justice Department, in Washington, DC, US, October 12, 2026. REUTERS/Annabelle Gordon
A former top Justice Department spokeswoman raised the possibility Monday that federal agents went “rogue” in their search of Rep. Ilhan Omar’s home, and suggested they leaked the operation to Fox News.
Xochitl Hinojosa, who led the department’s Office of Public Affairs under President Joe Biden, said the search by Homeland Security Investigations agents three weeks before the midterms broke with long-standing Justice Department practice.
“There’s a longstanding rule at DOJ that you don’t take overt actions like this before an election, especially when there’s a candidate on the ballot,” Hinojosa wrote on X. “Now, the question is whether HSI went rogue. FBI/DOJ has long had issues with HSI. They leak, don’t follow typical law enforcement protocol, and they have been seen as hurting investigations. Ask any FBI agent.”
She then pointed to how the search became public. Fox News first reported it as an exclusive, citing unnamed sources, and aired video of agents outside Omar’s home. “It also seems like HSI leaked the operation to FOX News,” Hinojosa wrote, tagging Attorney General Todd Blanche. “Where is the leak investigation...?”
The Justice Department has said HSI agents executed a “judicially authorized search warrant” that the department itself secured, as part of “an ongoing federal criminal investigation,” the Associated Press reported. It has not said what the investigation concerns. Critics have argued that HSI’s involvement signals an immigration case, and Fox’s sources said it centers on paperwork Omar’s late father filled out when she was a child.
Scott MacFarlane, chief Washington correspondent for the MeidasTouch Network, called Hinojosa’s post “important context.” National security writer Marcy Wheeler added that “HSI agents keep getting caught lying to judges, including in MN,” while author Amy Siskind recalled then-FBI Director James Comey’s late intervention in the 2016 race: “This is how we got Trump to begin with, thanks to Comey.”
Jace Yarbrough, the Trump-endorsed Republican nominee in a safely red Texas congressional district, rejected the premise.
“These made up ‘rules’ exist only to serve and protect Democrats. Once it targets conservatives, no such rules exists,” he wrote. “We’re done playing by the left’s rules. It’s time for accountability.”
Others argued the problem goes deeper than HSI.
“The Trump led front is Rogue,” wrote Nicholas Noe, a senior fellow at the humanitarian group Refugees International, “and they are fully turning state power towards their narrow, self enriching and self preserving ends.”
Republicans have long targeted Omar over immigration fraud allegations she calls “disgusting lies,” and House Oversight Chair James Comer said last month the Justice Department was investigating “the entire Omar family.”