100PercentFedUp "Catherine Herridge just identified a potentially powerful new lane for federal investigators examining Rep. Ilhan Omar: passport fraud.
"Omar has not been charged, and Herridge is describing a legal theory rather than announcing a prosecution.
"The theory could give investigators a way to examine newer conduct even if allegations involving decades-old immigration records would otherwise face serious time-limit questions.
"Herridge laid out the legal route Wednesday evening." . . .
. . . "The statute Herridge cited is real, broad and more consequential than many casual observers may realize.
"The U.S. Code makes it a federal crime to willfully and knowingly make a false statement in a passport application with the intent to secure a passport. It also reaches knowing use or attempted use of a passport that was secured by a false statement.
"The application offense is complete when a person knowingly supplies the false information for the purpose of obtaining the passport. The government would have to prove knowledge and intent, rather than rely on a clerical mistake, innocent misunderstanding or political accusation.
"The use provision reaches a different act: knowingly using or attempting to use a passport that was issued because of a false statement. For an ordinary first or second offense unrelated to terrorism or drug trafficking, the statute authorizes a maximum sentence of ten years.
"A separate provision, 18 U.S.C. § 3291, gives prosecutors ten years from the commission of a passport offense to bring a case, including a conspiracy to violate the covered passport statutes.
"That is the opening Herridge is flagging." . . . More.
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