THE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ-AWAN SCANDAL: What did Democrats know and when did they know it?

By Lloyd Billingsley

Imran Awan was the preferred IT man for former DNC boss Debbie Wasserman Schultz and other prominent Democrats. When Awan attempted to flee the country in July, authorities busted him for bank fraud, but for Andrew McCarthy, who prosecuted “Blind Sheik” Omar Abdel-Rahman, “this appears to be a real conspiracy, aimed at undermining American national security.”  Now some in Congress agree.

On Tuesday, Fox News reported, Rep. Scott Perry said Awan had made “massive” data transfers that posed a “substantial security threat.” Awan and four of his associates made 5,400 unauthorized logins on a single government server that belonged to Xavier Becerra, then head of House Democratic Caucus and now attorney general of California. 

On October 6, Luke Rosiak of the Daily Caller reported that Awan’s attorney wants to bar authorities from recovering data off the hard drive from a laptop with the username “RepDWS.” Capitol police found that laptop in a phone booth in the Rayburn House Office Building after Imran Awan had been banned from the House network from which he made massive data transfers.

Xavier Becerra was one of five House Democratic Caucus members who hired Imran Awan in 2004 but Becerra made more payments to Awan than any other Caucus member. Awan had access to data from 45 House Democrats including members of the House Intelligence and Foreign Affairs Committees. To access that kind of information requires a security clearance, and as Andrew McCarthy noted, Awan and his crew could not possibly have qualified for such a clearance. 

Florida Democrat Debbie Wasserman granted Awan free access to her computer and also brought aboard Abid Awan’s wife Natalia Sova and Awan’s brother Jamal. Wasserman Schultz refused to fire Awan even after he became the target of a criminal investigation, and she threatened investigators when they sought to inspect a laptop that belonged to the intrusive IT man.  

In August, Wasserman Schultz told the Sun-Sentinel she was concerned that Awan’s 

due process rights were “being violated,” that the Muslim was “put under scrutiny because of his religious faith,” and that “the right-wing media circus fringe” was jumping to “outrageous, egregious conclusions that they have ties to terrorists and that they were stealing data.” Wasserman Schultz also said it was absurd to conclude that Awan was trying to flee the country.

As Luke Rosiak noted, when Imran Awan tried to board a flight to Pakistan in July he was carrying documents with an alias in the Jackson Heights, Queens neighborhood of New York City, and possibly planning to relocate there under a different identity. According to prosecutors, Awan was taking “active measures” to hide evidence, such as wiping clean his cell phone. 

Awan’s attorney Chris Gowen is a former aide to Bill and Hillary Clinton. Gowen described Awan’s arrest as “clearly a right-wing media-driven prosecution by a United States Attorney’s Office that wants to prosecute people for working while Muslim.”

Some three months later, Rep. Scott Perry announced a “substantial security threat” from “massive” data breaches by the Democrats’ favorite IT man. Of all the IT men in all the IT companies in all the world, why did the Democrats hire Imran Awan? After learning that the Pakistani-born Muslim was under investigation, why did the Democrats keep paying him? And why did they bring on board other members of his family?

In his 5,400 unauthorized logins, what material did Awan take from members of the House Intelligence and Foreign Affairs Committees?  Did Imran Awan send any classified information to his homeland Pakistan, which aids the Taliban and harbored Osama bin Laden? Or did he sell it off to Russia or perhaps North Korea?

What did the Democrats know about Awan’s data breaches, and when did they know it? Did Awan’s data have anything to do with all the DNC leaks last year? Is Mueller’s Russia probe a diversion from the massive data breaches by Awan and his family?

What, exactly, was on that secret server that House Democratic Caucus boss Xavier Becerra wanted to wipe clean? That is a key question, but Perry should expect little if any cooperation from Becerra, once on Hillary Clinton’s short list as a running mate. 

Becerra is Jerry Brown’s megaphone against Trump, and California is now officially a sanctuary state. Secretary of State Alex Padilla refuses to give voter information to a federal investigation on election fraud, so attorney general Becerra is not likely to come clean on the server. His office had no comment after Perry’s announcement. Security threats are not a new theme for the Pennsylvania Republican, a member of the Homeland Security subcommittee on terrorism and intelligence.

“Violent Islamist extremism is regarded by many security experts as the principle extremist threat to the United States,” said Rep. Perry in a September 22, 2016, statement for a hearing on radical Islamist terror.  

“It’s time to stop hiding behind a façade of political correctness. Radical Islamist terrorists threaten our freedoms and threaten our way of life. If we are too afraid to name our enemy, and to dig deep into their ideological motivations, how are we ever expected to destroy this scourge?” 

Rep. Perry could be the right man to lead a full congressional investigation on the Democrats’ IT man Imran Awan. 

Read more at FrontpageMag.com.