The investigation into Republican Party collusion with Russia is still ongoing, but now there seems to be a scandal brewing for Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and it does not look good for the Democratic Party.
Imran Awan, Wasserman Schultz’s longtime IT employee, was arrested on July 24 at Dulles Airport on charges of bank fraud. Awan was attempting to flee the United States for Pakistan after his wife had already done so in March while she was under investigation.
His wife, Hina Alvi pulled their three young daughters out of school abruptly and left with $12,400 in cash.
Imran allegedly pretended to be his wife over the phone to obtain a fraudulent loan from the Congressional Federal Credit Union.
The initial reason given for the loan was funeral expenses. When that wasn’t approved he allegedly got on the phone and pretended to be her and told the credit union that she was now going to be buying some real estate. After that, the credit union wired $165,000 to Pakistan. In total Awan was able to get the credit union to transfer over $283,000.
Five members of Awan’s family are under investigation for abusing their access as IT administrators for dozens of Democrat representatives. From 2009 to 2017 they were paid at least $4 million to work IT for Democrat politicians.
This is a pay rate that is about three times higher than similar positions on Capitol Hill.
This alleged group of criminals had access to the entire digital network of the House’s Intelligence and Foreign Affairs Committees. The allegations against them also include details about an off-site server that was loaded with congressional data.
This was carried out without the knowledge of the authorities in Congress.
All of the evidence seems to suggest that Wasserman Schultz was going to keep paying Awan even after he left the US for Pakistan. It appears that he would have kept getting paid if he hadn’t been apprehended by the FBI.
Wasserman Schultz knew that his wife had fled the country while she was a suspect in a potential crime.
She continued to employ Awan for months, even after he had been become the focus of a criminal investigation.
Awan was blocked from accessing House IT systems because of his investigation status, yet Wasserman Schultz kept him employed. She only fired him after he was arrested by the FBI. Because of this apparent violation of House rules the conservative Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT) is requesting the Office of Congressional Ethics open an investigation into the Congresswoman’s lapse of judgement.
The most bizarre twist in this whole situation comes in the form of allegations made by retired U.S. Army Reserve Lieutenant Colonel during an appearance on Tucker Carlson Tonight.
He claims that evidence shows that Awan and his family helped Wasserman Schultz disguise her voice while making threatening phone calls and that all of information they pulled from Congressional servers may been sent to a foreign intelligence service known as the Muslim Brotherhood.
This potential scandal will eventually be sorted out in court, as the accused in this situation have not yet had their trial. If any of the allegations are true, it will not be good for Wasserman Schultz or the Democratic Party.
