Former part-time IT staffer, Imran Awan was arrested by federal officials two weeks ago as he attempted to flee the country amid a bank fraud scandal. Though other members of Congress who had employed Awan terminated him months ago, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Dem – FL) is another story.
Schultz abruptly resigned from her position as chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee last year after numerous leaked emails linked her to efforts to sabotage the campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Her continued use of Awan months after he came under investigation makes her internal party problems pale in comparison.
Awan was arrested at Dulles International Airport by members of the FBI, U.S. Capitol Police, and Customs and Border Protection as he was attempting to flee the country. The former House IT staffer and his relatives had been employed by the House for decades and faces charges of “double charging” for House IT equipment and possibly exposing private House information online.
Several members of Awan’s family were accused of “stealing equipment from members’ offices without their knowledge and committing serious, potentially illegal, violations on the House IT network. Wasserman Schultz contends the FBI showed anti-Muslim bias in their arrest of her former IT staffer, Imran Awan.
“I had grave concerns about his due process rights being violated,” the Congresswoman said. “When their investigation was reviewed with me, I was presented with no evidence of anything that they were being investigated for. And so that gave me great concern that his due process rights were being violated. That there were racial and ethnic profiling concerns that I had,” she said.
An FBI affidavit filed with the criminal complaint said Awan and his wife claimed a property used to secure a home equity line of credit was a “principal residence,” when it was, in fact, a rental property. Wasserman Schultz said there still hasn’t been any evidence presented that he’s done anything wrong involving his work for Congress.
Awan pleaded not guilty to one account of bank fraud at his arraignment in Washington, D.C. According to FOX News, he was released but will be required to wear a GPS ankle monitor until his preliminary hearing.
Multiple Democratic representatives fired Awan and other House IT staffers who were under investigation months ago but Schultz had maintained Awan, allowing him continued access to House servers, until just days ago.
David Damron, Wasserman Schultz’s spokesman, told Fox News that Awan had previously worked as a part-time employee, “but his services have been terminated.”
Congresswoman Schultz defended her decision to keep Awan on the government payroll after she discovered he was under investigation for bank fraud. “He’s not my staffer. He no longer works for me. And when he was arrested, I terminated him,” Wasserman Schultz said during a briefing Tuesday. “I kept him on the payroll during the time that he was not arrested and not charged with anything. And that was because, as I said, that I was concerned about the violation of his due process rights and also that there were racial and ethnic profiling concerns as well.”
Wasserman Schultz claims she didn’t know her IT specialist was attempting to send money to Pakistan. “I don’t know anything about his personal finances, and so it’s not something that I am really able to comment on.”
Wasserman Schultz said she wasn’t surprised that Awan’s wife Alvi had traveled to Pakistan. “I wasn’t surprised at the time, because they were being persecuted. Their children were being bullied at school. And they were experiencing the things that I was concerned about in terms of racial, ethnic and religious profiling, and so they lost their jobs, lost their livelihood, and she brought their children, their family to Pakistan. And so that’s my understanding,” she said.
Not surprisingly, major news outlets have had little to report about Pakistani nationals with access to sensitive information being protected by the former head of the DNC.
Some conservative news outlets note that Awan may have had access to and then leaked Democratic National Committee emails when Wasserman Schultz was running the organization.
Federal intelligence agencies have claimed Russia was behind the DNC leak that ultimately led to Wasserman Schultz’s resignation and there has been no evidence tying Awan to the hack.
Awan may or may not have been behind the leaks but there is no doubt Wasserman Schultz’ days may be numbered as a Congresswoman.
~ American Liberty Report
