More details have emerged from the ongoing investigation into a rogue IT staffer in the employ of Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL). The staffer was caught attempting to flee the country, back to Pakistan, and may have planted evidence for investigators to find.
The Daily Caller reported that Imran Awan, the computer tech for Schultz had left a laptop and other key documents in an alcove at the Rayburn House Office Building, possibly in hopes for the law authorities to discover. Alongside the laptop was a Pakistani ID card, copies of both Awan’s driver’s license and government ID, as well as letters to the U.S. Attorney General.
Wasserman-Schultz’s story and excuses has changed with the contours of the investigation. In May, she obstinately insisted that Awan’s laptop belonged to her, and that investigators should return it to her – arguing that it was simply one of her “lost and found” items, and of no investigative importance.
“If the equipment belongs to the member, it has been lost, they say it has been lost, and it is identified as that member’s, the Capitol Police is supposed to return it,” she argued. “My understanding is that the Capitol Police is not able to confiscate Members’ equipment when the Member is not under investigation.”
However, Wasserman-Schultz is now is now claiming that the laptop didn’t belong to her and that it has nothing to do with her, even though she previously insisted that it was hers, and the laptop in question is labeled with her initials, “RepDWS.”
Rep. Louie Gohmert, a former prosecutor, and member of the House Judiciary Committee responded to the revelation, saying, “Imran Awan is a calculating person who made great efforts to cover his tracks, both electronically and physically.” And that, “Placing that laptop with his personal documents, which may well incriminate him, those he worked for, or both, in the dead of night in a House office building, was a deliberate act by a cunning suspect, and it needs to be investigated.”
A police report obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation stated that, “on 4/6/2017 at 0021 hours, with the building closed to the public, AOC informed USCP Rayburn offices of an unattended bag in the phone booth on the 2nd floor. The officer received the open-contents visible bag and prepared a found property report. In the bag, they found a copy of Awan’s driver’s license, a copy of his government ID, his Pakistani ID card, Wasserman-Schultz’s laptop, a letter to the US Attorney for DC, and a composition notebooks labeled ‘attorney client privilege’ containing handwritten notes.
Wasserman Schultz even claimed that the laptop was Awan’s personal property which was reportedly purchased from taxpayer funds from her office and went on to claim that she had never seen it before. “This was not my laptop,” she stated. “I have never seen that laptop. I don’t know what’s on the laptop.”
Wasserman Schultz tried to claim that Awan was under investigation because of Islamophobia. However, that narrative fell apart after Taggart, a U.S. Marine who had rented Awan a place in Virginia, discovered several hard drives that Awan had destroyed while trying to flee the country.
