By Michelle Griffith | Reporter
Good morning, Reformers.
The Trump administration is aiming to build a case against U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar to strip her of her U.S. citizenship and ultimately deport her, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
Agents took Omar’s cellphone, notebooks, personal computers and her passport from her Washington, D.C. home, the Journal reported. Authorities have also issued over a dozen subpoenas seeking testimony before a grand jury, including to some of Omar’s family members.
President Donald Trump has long called for Omar’s deportation.
The Journal reports that at the center of the immigration investigation is whether Omar’s father or Omar herself changed her age on her citizenship application to show she was 17 rather than 18 years old at the time her father applied for citizenship. If she was 18, she would have needed to file her own immigration paperwork rather than receiving citizenship through her father’s naturalization process.
The paper reported that the Justice Department needs to file a federal lawsuit to strip Omar’s citizenship and prove that Omar herself lied to gain her citizenship to have a strong case.
Jeanine Pirro, Washington’s U.S. attorney, said that her office also was investigating Omar’s financial disclosures.
Onto today’s Reformer.
Caption (Name/Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth talks to fairgoers at her campaign booth for Minnesota governor during the Minnesota State Fair Friday, Aug. 28, 2026. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer))
By Michelle Griffith
Lisa Demuth asked God whether she should run for Minnesota House minority leader.
On the morning Minnesota House Republicans were electing a new leader after a bitterly disappointing 2022 election, Demuth read the Bible verse 1 Peter 4:10: “God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another.”
Demuth then had breakfast that morning with other elected officials, and one of them recommended she read a Bible verse ahead of the caucus election: the very same 1 Peter 4:10.
Demuth took this as a sign from God.
Demuth rarely talks about her faith publicly, but the Reformer’s review of several recorded talks she’s given at religious conferences in recent years indicate she served as her church’s worship leader for 16 years and she has frequently turned to God and her well-worn Bible to guide her legislative decisions.
Demuth is a member of Assemblies of God, the world’s largest Pentecostal denomination.
By Ashley Murray
The No Kings movement that has brought millions to the streets across the United States three times since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term is staging its next event at the polls.
Organizers across hundreds of advocacy groups will pull together thousands of events nationwide Saturday to encourage early voting in this year’s midterm elections. Voting is already underway in dozens of states, and roughly 5.1 million ballots – both in-person and mail – have been cast, according to the University of Florida’s Election Lab.
Saturday’s “No Kings: Vote Early Day of Action” events include marches and walks to the polls where early voting is already underway and open on the weekends.
The Twin Cities No Kings Coalition is hosting its event in downtown Minneapolis from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday.
By Norm Eisen, Virginia Canter, Richard W. Painter and Christopher Swartz
We published an excerpt of a letter written by a group of ethics lawyers to the U.S. Office of Special Counsel calling for an investigation into whether the raid on Omar’s D.C. home violated the Hatch Act, which prevents the use of official authority or influence for the purpose of interfering with or affecting the result of an election.
“DOJ and DHS’s decision to push forward with an invasive, multi-hour search of a sitting member of Congress and political candidate’s home in the very throes of election season, purportedly related to allegations concerning conduct that purportedly occurred 30 years ago, has all the hallmarks of the type of ‘political justice’ prohibited by the Hatch Act,” the lawyers write.
IN OTHER NEWS
OH BY THE WAY
I can’t wait to see the new Nathan Fielder documentary, “You Can See Everything,” about disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes.
For some confounding reason, Holmes invited Nathan Fielder of all people — a comedian famous for his deadpan and real-world pranks — to move in with her and document her every move in the month before she’s sent to prison. It’s three hours long, but I’m excited.
Have a great Thursday.
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