House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer told listeners of the Pod Force One podcast that Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., is "in a lot of trouble", and confirmed the Justice Department is actively investigating the congresswoman in connection with alleged fraud schemes funneling taxpayer dollars through her district.
Comer, a Kentucky Republican, made the remarks during a wide-ranging conversation with New York Post columnist Miranda Devine. He praised the Trump administration's push to prosecute fraud in Minnesota while suggesting Omar could become a direct target of that crackdown.
The chairman's comments land at a moment when federal enforcement activity in the state has visibly accelerated. And they raise pointed questions about a sitting member of Congress whose financial disclosures and earmark requests have drawn bipartisan scrutiny for years, questions Omar has largely refused to answer in detail.
Comer laid out his case methodically. He pointed to earmarks Omar submitted for her district and linked them to what he called fraudulent schemes. As the New York Post reported, the chairman said:
"You got a situation there where you look at some of the earmarks she requested for her district were for some of those fraudulent schemes."
Omar has drawn scrutiny for championing the 2020 MEALS Act, which eased oversight of school-meal requirements during the pandemic. That legislation set the stage for the $250 million Feeding Our Future scam, one of the largest pandemic-era fraud cases in the country.
The congresswoman was also called out by Republican lawmakers earlier this year for attempting to earmark more than $1 million to a Somali-led addiction recovery organization that shares an address with a Minneapolis Somali restaurant. That earmark was ultimately removed from a broader spending package in January.
Comer explained that when Republicans regained control of Congress, they restored community development project earmarks but added guardrails to prevent abuse. One of Omar's submissions, he said, failed that test.
"One of the things that she submitted, they caught on the staff, and it wasn't a legitimate project."
Omar has vehemently denied any knowledge of or connection to fraud in Minnesota. But the denials have not quieted the questions, and Comer made clear the federal government is not satisfied either.
Perhaps the most striking portion of Comer's remarks concerned Omar's personal finances. The chairman described a "big question mark" surrounding how the congresswoman's reported net worth spiked to at least $6 million and then dropped back to zero within a single year.
"She's never really answered that other than saying she made a mistake."
Comer was blunt about the plausibility of that explanation. He noted the discrepancy involved adding "three extra zeros or two extra zeros" to financial disclosure figures, a gap he called impossible to chalk up to a clerical error.
Omar has previously lashed out at reporters who pressed her on the multimillion-dollar disclosure gap. Comer's assessment was direct: "It's not even believable."
The chairman acknowledged there is currently "no evidence that she benefited" financially from the fraud schemes themselves. But he framed the net worth swing as a separate, unresolved problem that compounds the broader picture.
House Republicans have also probed financial disclosures tied to Omar's husband, including a California winery that has since closed, another thread in a web of financial questions surrounding the congresswoman's household.
Comer confirmed on the podcast that Omar is "being investigated" by the Justice Department. He did not detail the specific nature of the probe but praised the pace of federal enforcement.
"This Department of Justice in the last month has significantly increased their activity, which is good."
The Trump administration's efforts to prosecute fraud in Minnesota have been a recurring theme in federal law enforcement circles. Comer lauded those efforts and described what he characterized as a broad crackdown targeting "that Somali crime ring up there."
Vice President JD Vance has also weighed in publicly. He previously stated the Justice Department is investigating whether Omar committed immigration fraud, a separate but overlapping line of federal scrutiny that has followed the congresswoman for years.
A state-level Minnesota fraud committee has also pointed to Omar's role in the Feeding Our Future scandal, adding another layer of institutional attention to the congresswoman's conduct.
Comer's appearance on Pod Force One was not limited to Minnesota. Pressed by Devine on the House Oversight Committee's investigation into convicted sex predator Jeffrey Epstein, Comer revealed details that paint a troubling picture of prior federal inaction.
The chairman said his committee brought in Epstein's accountant, his lawyer, and his assistant, and that none of them had ever been interviewed by the Department of Justice.
"It's just baffling to me, when we bring in Jeffrey Epstein's accountant and his lawyer, that they were never interviewed by anyone in the Department of Justice, ever."
Comer added that Epstein's assistant said she had never spoken to a single investigator, despite her name appearing in DOJ files as a co-conspirator. The chairman did not hold back about what that gap suggests.
"Just things like that that make no sense to me that you wonder, was he being protected by someone? I don't know. We're trying to answer that question, but thus far I don't think we've been able to."
The committee is now shifting its witness strategy. Comer said the panel is bringing in victims and survivors, whom he expects to be far more valuable than the "rich and powerful men" who have testified so far.
"The names that they recall just happened to be dead."
That dry observation captures the frustration of a committee that has watched high-profile witnesses claim memory failure while pointing only to people who can no longer be questioned.
Omar's situation sits at the intersection of several overlapping controversies: the Feeding Our Future fraud, the earmark to a shared-address organization, the unexplained net worth fluctuation, and now a confirmed DOJ investigation. Each thread alone might warrant scrutiny. Together, they form a pattern that no serious oversight body can ignore.
Omar has repeatedly broken with her own party on high-profile votes, cultivating a reputation as a political iconoclast. But iconoclasm is not a shield against accountability. And "I made a mistake" does not explain how a member of Congress reported a net worth of $6 million one year and zero the next.
Comer was careful to note the limits of what he knows. He said there is no current evidence Omar personally profited from the fraud schemes. That distinction matters. But the chairman also made clear the investigation is ongoing, the DOJ is accelerating, and the questions surrounding the congresswoman are multiplying, not fading.
When a sitting member of Congress cannot explain where millions of dollars came from and went, and when the earmarks she championed keep landing on addresses that don't check out, the public deserves more than a dismissive wave. It deserves a full accounting, under oath if necessary.
Taxpayers funded those earmarks. Taxpayers funded the MEALS Act. And taxpayers are still waiting for someone in Minnesota to explain where all that money actually went.
