Trump demands Ilhan Omar resign, but removing her from Congress could be harder than he expects

President Donald Trump is urging Representative Ilhan Omar to resign as the Department of Justice investigates potential immigration fraud, according to reporting on the case, raising questions about whether House Republicans could take action against her.

Trump has questioned whether Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, is in the country legally and therefore qualified to sit in Congress. He said she used a fake name to be sworn in and called her a little troublemaker.

The President has suggested her name is not Ilhan Omar and is an entirely different name. A federal filing in the inquiry lists the congresswoman's name as 'Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, a/k/a Ilhan Abdullahi Omar', according to the reporting.

Federal authorities recently raided Omar's Washington, D.C. home and removed 17 items, according to the reporting. Those items included phones, notebooks, a camera and a Somali phrase book for her kids.

Confronted by a reporter about her name, Omar replied that her name is Ilhan Abdullahi Omar and that the reporter knows it.

The Clerk of the House of Representatives officially lists the congresswoman solely as 'Ilhan Omar' on 15 different financial disclosure reports dating back to 2018, before she entered Congress. The same name was used in the Minnesota state legislature, where Omar served before coming to Washington.

Omar carried her district two years ago with nearly three-quarters of the vote, in a solidly blue district that the reporting says she will likely win again.

Trump says she must immediately resign from Congress and will not be legally allowed to be a member of that body. However, Article I, Section 5 of the Constitution grants both chambers of Congress final authority over who they admit to their membership.

At least one House Republican is willing to explore action, but only if the facts merit it. Representative Morgan Griffith, a Virginia Republican, said the House has the prerogative to seat or not seat members and to throw members out if it so chooses, but that there ought to be good sound reasons for it.

Griffith said such a step would be extraordinary, should be extraordinary, and should not be used except in extraordinary circumstances. Asked what would meet that bar, he paraphrased the late Justice Potter Stewart's 1964 obscenity remark, saying he would know it when he saw it.

The reporting notes that the qualifications for the House are simple: a member must be a citizen, a resident of the state they represent, and at least 25 years old. The Constitution is silent on all other credentials.

Expelling a member would require a two-thirds vote in the House. Omar has not been convicted of a crime, and the reporting describes any expulsion scenario as remarkable. It also notes that House counsel would likely contest any effort by federal prosecutors to obtain Omar's official House communication devices and documents, citing the Speech or Debate Clause in Article I, Section 6, which grants lawmakers privileges tied to their official duties.