Rep. Jason Crow, a three-tour combat veteran and former Army Ranger, accused President Donald Trump on Monday of turning the machinery of the federal government against his political enemies. He pointed to his own near-prosecution as proof of the pattern. The Colorado Democrat’s warning came hours after federal agents executed a search warrant at the Washington-area home of Rep. Ilhan Omar, 22 days before the midterm elections.
Crow posted his statement on X at 11:45 a.m. on Monday, October 12, 2026, attaching coverage of the search. The full text of the post reads:
“The President is weaponizing our government against his perceived political opponents.
He tried and failed to indict me when I filmed a video reminding our troops to follow the law.
Now he’s targeting @Ilhan, an elected Member of Congress.
Trump’s abuses of power are chilling and concerning. There must be accountability for his corruption.”
The Search of Omar’s Home
Homeland Security Investigations agents, part of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, carried out a court-approved search of Omar’s home on Monday, according to the account of the search reported by The New York Times. Three people briefed on the matter described it on condition of anonymity. A Justice Department spokeswoman confirmed that agents executed a judicially authorized search of a home in the Washington area as part of an “ongoing federal criminal investigation” and declined to comment further.
The warrant lists potential immigration crimes under investigation, including false statements and fraud in immigration paperwork, along with a general conspiracy charge, according to a person familiar with the document. Prosecutors submitted the first application more than a week ago, and it was approved only after discussion with the federal judge about constitutional questions, including the speech or debate clause that protects members of Congress.
The timing is what has drawn the sharpest scrutiny. Justice Department policy has long urged prosecutors to avoid overt investigative steps that could affect an election in the 60 days before voting, and officials have generally treated a publicly observable search of a politician’s home as the kind of step to avoid. The rule is not absolute and allows exceptions where evidence could be destroyed, crimes are ongoing, or people are in danger. Trump himself invoked the same rule in 2024 to accuse the department of acting improperly in his own cases.
Omar and the White House Respond
Omar called the search “an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement” in a statement on social media. She wrote that Trump has targeted her with “baseless lies and smear campaigns” for ten years, and added: “I will not be silenced.” Trump, speaking to reporters before a campaign rally in Ohio, said he understood officials were “looking at her very carefully.”
The House Democratic leadership (Hakeem Jeffries, Katherine Clark and Pete Aguilar) condemned the search as a “rogue abuse of power.” Hundreds of supporters rallied in a Minneapolis park, some holding signs reading “Stand with Ilhan.” Jason Chavez of the Minneapolis City Council predicted the search would galvanize her constituents.
The investigation has been building for months. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in September that his department was examining Omar’s family’s immigration history and suggested the outcome could be deportation. White House border czar Tom Homan said last year that earlier efforts were stymied by statutes of limitations. Vice President JD Vance said in March that he believed Omar “definitely committed immigration fraud.” Omar has long said such claims are false and politically motivated, and earlier federal inquiries, including one over whether she married a sibling, ended without charges.
Crow’s Own Brush With Prosecution
When Crow wrote that Trump “tried and failed to indict” him, he was referring to a video released in November 2025. In it, he and five other Democratic lawmakers with military or intelligence backgrounds reminded service members that they must refuse illegal orders. Trump labeled the video “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, led by Jeanine Pirro, then requested an interview with Crow, and the FBI contacted the House and Senate Sergeants at Arms seeking interviews with him and his colleagues. Crow said at the time that Trump had called for his “arrest, prosecution, and execution.”
On February 10, 2026, a federal grand jury in Washington declined to indict the lawmakers, an outcome described as extraordinarily unusual. Crow’s official statement that evening said Trump’s Justice Department “just tried—and failed—to indict me in front of a grand jury.” He said Americans “should be furious” that Trump tried to “weaponize our justice system again against his political opponents,” and he closed with the Navy maxim “Don’t Give Up the Ship.”
At a press conference the next day with fellow defendants Maggie Goodlander, Chris Deluzio and Chrissy Houlahan, Crow said prosecutors “failed, and they will always fail.” He added that “the tide is turning.” Crow’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, sent a letter to Pirro warning against further attempts to charge the lawmakers. In an interview, Crow warned that “there will be costs” for those responsible and said, “We are taking names, we are making lists.”
A Consistent Message on Weaponization and Corruption
Crow had made the weaponization charge before. After the State of the Union on February 24, 2026, his official response said Trump had sought “to silence any dissent, weaponizing the federal government against his perceived opponents, including me.” It also accused the president of using his office to enrich his family “through corrupt deals” and promised to “lead the charge to hold Trump, J.D. Vance, and Republicans accountable.”
His warnings have increasingly tied the issue to the midterms. After the White House fired the commissioners of the Election Assistance Commission in July, Crow said Trump “knows he can’t win fair and square, so he’s trying to cheat.” Days later, responding to a Trump speech on election denialism, he said Trump “only has a problem with one election, the one he lost.” Both statements ended with the same line: “Accountability is coming.”
The “accountability” he demanded Monday is also the center of his legislative work. In May, Crow launched the End Corruption Caucus with Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Mike Levin, and he serves as a co-chair. In June he introduced the SHINE Act, which targets hidden interests and non-disclosure in elections, and the Drain the Slush Fund Act. He also joined Sen. Elizabeth Warren in demanding answers from the White House about reported favoritism in federal contracts benefiting the Trump family.
Link: https://crow.house.gov/media/press-releases/crow-ocasio-cortez-levin-launch-end-corruption-caucus
Crow’s History With Presidential Accountability
Crow’s push for oversight of Trump is not new. In December 2019, then a freshman, he announced he would vote for both articles of impeachment, saying “no man or woman is above or below” the law. He was named one of the seven House managers who prosecuted the case in the Senate, which acquitted Trump in February 2020. Crow now sits on the House Armed Services Committee and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and he serves as candidate recruitment co-chair for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. He has called retaking the House “a no-fail mission.”
With Election Day on November 3, Crow’s post reflects an argument Democrats are likely to make through the final weeks of the campaign: that the search of a sitting congresswoman’s home so close to a vote is part of a broader pattern of the administration using federal power against its opponents. The Justice Department has said only that the search is part of an ongoing criminal investigation, and Omar has not been charged with any crime.