Imran Awan entering federal court for his arraignment Sept. 1, 2017. (Photo: Screenshot/The Daily Caller)
Imran Awan, the former aide to Debbie Wasserman Schultz, made “massive” data transfers off the secure House server during unauthorized logins. Awan, who also worked for more than two dozen other House Democrats, pleaded not guilty in September to multiple federal charges including bank fraud and conspiracy.
“These facts, standing alone, indicate a substantial security threat,” Rep. Scott Perry, R-Penn., said Tuesday during a hearing of Republican House members on Capitol Hill.
Rep. Perry, a member of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Cyber Security, said the Office of Inspector General tracked the network usage of Awan and his associates on House servers and found that a “massive” amount of data was transferred from the networks.
The investigation started after the inspector general allegedly found so much “smoke” that she recommended a criminal probe to Capitol Hill Police, who decided to bring in the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). A video emerged shortly after showing Wasserman Schultz threatening Capitol Hill Police over the seizing of Democrats’ devices.
The FBI is also probing whether Awan sold secrets to Pakistan. Investigators are further looking into whether those secrets fell into the hands of Russia, who now serves as America’s favorite scapegoat.
As People’s Pundit Daily (PPD) reported in August, Mr. Awan was already indicted on four counts unrelated to the security breaches, including bank fraud. The indictment came roughly a month after he was arrested trying to flee the country. Authorities picked him up at Dulles Airport attempting to board a flight to Lahore, Pakistan.
Authorities allege they were involved in a scheme to defraud the Congressional Federal Credit Union by obtaining a $165,000 home equity loan for a rental property. It also involved double-charging the U.S. House of Representatives for IT equipment and suspected exposing House information online.
Those funds were then included as part of a wire transfer to two individuals in Faisalabad, Pakistan.
According to documents filed in a court in Pakistan on September 13, which were obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation, Alvi accused her husband of fraud. She claimed Awan “threatened the complainant of dire consequences, he also threatened to harm the lives of family of the complainant if she intervenes.”
In February, Imran & Co. had their access revoked and were removed from the House computer network after they failed to produce the missing invoiced equipment. Meanwhile, they previously had access to highly-sensitive information, including material related to the House Intelligence Committee and Foreign Relations Committee.
When asked why he remained on Schultz’s payroll as an “adviser”–despite being barred from accessing the House’s computer system since February–spokesman David Damron said he provided “valuable services,” to include working “on printers, trouble-shooting & other issues.”
Christopher Gowen, Imran’s lawyer who worked for both the Hillary Clinton campaigns and the Clinton Foundation, said in a statement his client was indicted “for working while Muslim.” Wasserman Schultz recently told a local paper that the investigation was motivated by “racial and ethnic profiling.”
But investigators say Democrats, including the former chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), did a terrible job vetting the Awans and put the nation’s secrets at risk.
“These lawmakers allowed an insider threat to come into the House,” the official said. “Computer equipment was stolen, taxpayers were robbed of hundreds of thousands of dollars, and sensitive data was compromised and possibly sold overseas.”
Rep. Perry also said more than 5,700 logins by Awan and his associates were conducted on a single House server. A whopping 5,400 of those logins, which were on a server belonging to then-Democratic Rep. Xavier Becerra, were unauthorized. Mr. Becerra is now attorney general in California.
Awan was paid nearly $2 million since 2004. His wife and his brother, Abid Awan, were also each paid more than $1 million working for House Democrats. In total, since 2003, the family has collected nearly $5 million.
