Our Take: Who Spun It, Who Didn’t
Spin Meter: Some Spin
Federal agents searched a sitting congresswoman’s D.C. home on Monday with a judge-signed warrant in an immigration-fraud investigation. They took her phone, laptop and passport. Friday, her lawyers sent the DOJ a letter calling it “neither justified nor lawful,” demanding everything back and asking that all search video be saved. They say agents didn’t notify the House General Counsel as the judge ordered and kept her from calling her lawyer for over an hour.
One crowd already has her on a plane to Mogadishu based on a warrant. A warrant isn’t a verdict. The other crowd yells persecution like the judge who signed it is a MAGA hat with a gavel. Nobody outside the case has seen the evidence, and that hasn’t slowed anybody down.
The good news: this is going to a judge, with lawyers, motions and an evidence locker. Boring. That’s the system working.
Left
MS NOW: “Ilhan Omar demands DOJ immediately return property seized in search of her home”
Detailed on the letter: the House counsel notice, the hour without a lawyer, the Speech or Debate angle. Every claim gets “the lawyers allege.” Good. But it’s the defense’s letter read aloud with almost nothing from DOJ. It’s a closing argument with a byline.
Center
AP: “Rep. Ilhan Omar’s attorneys demand return of property seized in federal search of her home”
Got the letter, quoted it, noted the midterm timing and the warrant in the same breath. No adjectives doing push-ups. The Washington Post and ABC both just ran it as is. When the competition copies you word for word, you won.
Right
Fox News: “Ilhan Omar’s phone seized in federal raid over immigration papers”
Fox broke the search, and DOJ confirmed it. Credit. Added the family subpoenas, and that the papers were filed by her late father when she was a child, which actually helps her. Then it says “raid” every chance it gets and stacks the financial-disclosure probe on top, while admitting it’s unrelated. Accurate, but it really wants you to know there’s a lot of smoke.
The facts, checked
- CONFIRMEDHSI executed a judge-authorized search warrant at Omar’s D.C. home on Oct. 12; DOJ confirmed it (Fox, Judicial Watch filing, AP).
- CONFIRMEDHer lawyers’ Oct. 16 letter calls the search “neither justified nor lawful” and demands return of seized property and preservation of search recordings (AP, MS NOW, WSJ).
- REPORTEDSeized items include her phone, laptop and passport (MS NOW; Fox reported the phone).
- REPORTEDAgents didn’t notify the House General Counsel as ordered and kept her from her lawyer for over an hour. These are the lawyers’ allegations (MS NOW).
- REPORTEDThe probe centers on immigration paperwork, including filings by her late father, and more than a dozen family members got subpoenas (Fox, WSJ). She denies wrongdoing.
Closest to the truth: AP (center)
Both sides were accurate and both picked a lane. MS NOW read the defense’s brief. Fox read the prosecution’s mood. AP read both. Even on facts. The spin is in what each side left out, not in anything they got wrong.
Satire-free zone: the jokes are ours, the facts are not made up. Grades and “Our Take” are analysis and opinion, not news. Scores follow the facts, not the team jersey.
In a letter to Justice Department prosecutors Friday evening, lawyers for Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., demanded the immediate return of all property taken from her Washington home on Monday, when Homeland Security investigators executed a search warrant as part of an investigation into alleged immigration fraud and conspiracy.
That search…
Read the full story at MS NOW
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