Rep. Jim McGovern, the Massachusetts Democrat who serves as ranking member of the House Rules Committee, accused President Donald Trump on Monday of being “the most corrupt president in American history” and of “abusing his power to target his political opponents.” The post on X came the same day federal agents searched the Washington home of Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat and frequent target of the president. McGovern, a longtime critic of Trump who helped steer the first impeachment of Trump through the House in 2019, went on to call the president’s allies “a bunch of liars and crooks” and accused them of a “rogue & fascist weaponization of government.”
The Post
McGovern published the post from his official account, @RepMcGovern, at 3:12 p.m. on Monday, October 12, 2026. In full, it reads:
“Donald Trump is the most corrupt president in American history—it’s no surprise that just three weeks before the election he is abusing his power to target his political opponents. MAGA is desperate to change the subject because the jig is up—people know they are a bunch of liars and crooks. We will hold them accountable for their rogue & fascist weaponization of government.”
The post makes three distinct claims. McGovern charged that Trump is abusing his power to target political opponents, that the timing, “just three weeks before the election,” is no surprise, and that “MAGA is desperate to change the subject.” He closed with a pledge, “We will hold them accountable,” without specifying how. The post linked to an Associated Press report on the search of Omar’s home.
The Search That Prompted the Post
Federal agents on Monday searched Omar’s home in what the Associated Press described as a startling escalation of a criminal investigation, coming in the final weeks of her reelection bid. The search was carried out by agents with Homeland Security Investigations, part of the Department of Homeland Security. The Justice Department said the agents had executed a judicially authorized search warrant in the Washington, D.C., area tied to an ongoing federal criminal investigation, but provided no other details. The street around Omar’s home was blocked off Monday morning as some agents removed boxes labeled “Seized Property Evidence.”
Omar called the search an “attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement.” “For ten years, Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns. This is just the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation,” she said. “I will not be silenced.” A joint statement from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and other top congressional Democrats said that “less than 30 days until the midterm election, his violent mass deportation machine has descended upon the home of a duly elected Member of Congress and her family.” Democrats also pointed to the Justice Department’s longstanding practice of avoiding public investigative steps involving candidates within 60 days of an election.
Hours after the search, Trump told reporters he had “nothing to do” with it and that it is “really up to the DOJ.” Days earlier, at a rally in Tennessee, Trump had described Omar’s native country as one of “crime and squalor” and suggested that Vice President JD Vance “and our people” were investigating her. Vance said in May that “it certainly seems like something fishy is there,” adding that “if we think there’s a crime, we’re going to prosecute that crime.” Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said last month, “Something’s going to happen.” Omar has denied the immigration fraud allegations as “disgusting lies.”
McGovern’s Record on Trump and Abuse of Power
McGovern’s language on Monday echoes positions he has taken since Trump’s first term. In December 2019, as chairman of the House Rules Committee, he opened the panel’s meeting on the articles of impeachment, which charged Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, by arguing that Trump’s pressure on Ukraine to investigate his political rivals was wrong. “If that is not impeachable conduct, I don’t know what is,” McGovern said. “No one should be allowed to use the powers of the presidency to undermine our elections or cheat in a campaign, no matter who it is and no matter what their party.”
After the Senate voted on those articles in early 2020, McGovern’s official statement said: “Donald Trump broke the law. He tried to cheat in an election.” In January 2021, after the Capitol attack, he said he expected Trump to be impeached for “incitement of insurrection,” becoming “the first president in history to be impeached twice,” and called Trump “a clear and present danger to this country.” In a radio interview that week, he described Republicans who continued to publicly back Trump as “cowards.”
Warnings on Military Power and Authoritarianism
McGovern, who also co-chairs the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, has repeatedly tied his criticism of Trump to the use of military and security power. In a November 2024 floor speech, he said, “The new administration is leaking plans to court-martial military officers who are not sufficiently loyal,” and asked, “Isn’t that usually how things go in an authoritarian dictatorship?” In the same speech he warned that a bill under debate would grant Trump “a new power to unilaterally accuse an American group of terrorism and then shut them down.”
On November 20, 2025, McGovern issued an official statement after Trump posted that six Democratic lawmakers, all veterans or former intelligence officials, had engaged in “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” over a video urging service members to refuse illegal orders. “Let’s not mince words. Donald Trump’s statement is a death threat,” McGovern said. “The sitting President of the United States is calling for the murder of his political opponents.” He added that the video “simply restates current U.S. law” and told Americans: “do not be intimidated.”
McGovern has also challenged Trump’s use of military force abroad. In December 2025, after the House rejected his bipartisan War Powers Resolution on Venezuela, he said he was “furious” that lawmakers had surrendered Congress’s constitutional responsibility on war to a “wannabe dictator.” In January 2026, his office called the administration’s strike on Venezuela an “illegal and unjustified attack,” and a follow-up resolution, H. Con. Res. 68, ended in a tie vote on January 22.
A Wider Pattern Democrats Describe as Weaponization
Democrats have pointed to a series of prosecutions of Trump’s critics since 2025. Former FBI Director James Comey was charged in September 2025 with making a false statement and obstruction, and New York Attorney General Letitia James was indicted on October 9, 2025, in a mortgage fraud case that Trump had urged the Justice Department to bring. James called her indictment “nothing more than a continuation of the president’s desperate weaponization of our justice system.” In May 2025, Rep. Dan Goldman said the charging of Rep. LaMonica McIver meant the administration was “weaponizing the Department of Justice in an unprecedented way to silence and intimidate his political opposition.”
Who Omar Is and What Happens Next
Omar, first elected in 2018, represents Minnesota’s 5th District, which includes Minneapolis. She is a member of the progressive group known as The Squad, was one of the first two Muslim-American women in the House and is the first African refugee elected to Congress. Republicans removed her from the House Foreign Affairs Committee in 2023, citing her remarks about Israel. In January, an assailant sprayed her with vinegar at a town hall in Minneapolis; the attacker was sentenced to 14 months in prison.
The scope of the investigation remains unclear, and the Justice Department has offered no further details. With the midterm elections next month set to decide control of the House and Senate, McGovern’s post makes the case that the search is part of a broader pattern, while Trump and administration officials have said the matter rests with the Justice Department. McGovern’s pledge that Democrats “will hold them accountable” will depend on the outcome of those elections.