Did Wasserman Schultz Staffer Sell Classified Information to the Russians?

Imran Awan is a former IT staffer who worked for several Democratic members of Congress including Debbie Wasserman Schultz. 

Awan had access to all of Wasserman Schultz’s House and DNC emails; he even had the password to her iPad. Last April, Awan and four other IT staffers were accused of theft and bank fraud. 

Most of Awan’s employers fired him at this time, but Wasserman Schultz kept him employed up until last month when he was arrested after he tried to flee to Pakistan. 

In case you forgot, Debbie Wasserman Schultz is the Florida Representative who was kicked out of her position as DNC Chairwoman last year after leaked emails showed she had been working to help Hillary Clinton win the party’s nomination. 

As I wrote in a previous article, Wasserman Schultz is also facing a lawsuit that claims she (and the DNC) did not act impartially with donor money during the months leading up to the presidential election.

The feds are now investigating whether Awan stole sensitive data from his employers and sold it to foreign intelligence (including the Russians). 

Investigators suspect Awan may have sold information that could have been used to blackmail members of Congress. 

“This is a massive, massive scandal,” said one official familiar with the investigation. 

It all started in April 2016, when House security officials noticed irregularities in equipment purchasing. The resulting investigation uncovered the theft of hundreds of thousands of dollars in equipment. All the evidence pointed to Awan, his wife, two relatives, and a friend – all of whom worked as IT staffers. 

Background checks show these individuals have little IT experience. One of them worked as a cook at McDonald’s before he was hired; another was slapped with a DWI just one month before he was hired. 

These people had access not only to lawmakers’ emails, but also to their schedules, calendars, memos, meeting notes, hearing notes, and other sensitive information. 

“These lawmakers allowed an insider threat to come into the House,” said one official. “Computer equipment was stolen, taxpayers were robbed of hundreds of thousands of dollars, and sensitive data was compromised and possibly sold overseas.” 

The investigation also found that valuable information was removed from the network and placed on offsite servers. An estimated 80 offices may have been compromised. 

“It’s clear that large bytes of data were moved off the secure network,” said another official close to the investigation. “Logic dictates that sensitive data was compromised. An accused criminal with close ties to Pakistan had full and complete control over data that went out of the network.”

On August 17th, a federal grand jury indicted Awan and his wife on four felony counts including conspiracy and bank fraud. These charges are unrelated to the cyberespionage investigation. According to the indictment, Awan and his wife wired $300,000 in fraudulently obtained funds to Pakistan in January. 

Awan’s lawyer and Wasserman Schultz are trying to play the race card, with the latter arguing that the investigation is motivated by “racial and ethnic profiling.” 

Earlier this year, Wasserman Schultz threatened the Capitol Police Chief with “consequences” if he did not return a laptop that was confiscated by the US Attorney’s Office in Washington as part of the investigation.

It was also Wasserman Schultz who refused to turn over the DNC server to the FBI after it was hacked during last year’s election.

Wasserman Schultz denies that she turned down the FBI’s help or that her emails were compromised by Awan.  

Author’s Note: This could be the final nail in the coffin for the “Russian hackers” theory. Unfortunately, as Tea Party activist Herman Cain writes:

“We’ve all grown accustomed to watching obvious corruption go unpunished. Whether it was Eric Holder’s multiple scandals, the IRS targeting scandal, the Benghazi YouTube lie, Hillary’s secret server, or the shady Tarmac meeting, we just spent eight years taking a master class in the way the federal government protects and covers for its own.” 

I would love to be wrong here, but why should we expect anything different with the investigations into Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the DNC, and Awan?

Editor’s note: I believe Debbie Wasserman Schultz will go down in history as the least intelligent and most naive Congressman ever.