Feds picked up Imran Awan at Dulles Aiport last night as he was "trying to leave the country." h/t @ChadPergram
— Thomas Paine (@Thomas1774Paine) July 25, 2017
The Bad news for Democrats: Imran Awan, the right-hand IT staffer of embattled Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, has been arrested while trying to sneak out of the country. He is facing bank fraud charges.
The good news for Awan: He is still on Wasserman-Schultz’s federally-backed payroll, according to federal treasury sources. It appears even during a criminal investigation and possible manhunt, Awan was drawing a stipend or some type of expense-related salary that Wasserman approved, or failed to stop, sources said.
He was carrying $12,000 in cash when arrested and had recently wired over $200,000 to Pakistan prior to his arrest.
Awan and his two brothers are at the center of a criminal investigation which impacts dozens of Democratic lawmakers.
Wasserman also has failed to terminate the employment agreements with the Awan brothers and officially they remain on Wasserman’s payroll despite the fact that one is now in custody and the other brothers remain at large.
From The Daily Caller:
Florida Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s right-hand information technology (IT) aide was arrested attempting to leave the country just a few hours after The Daily Caller News Foundation’s Investigative Group revealed that he is the target of an FBI investigation.
The employees had wired $283,000 from a House office building to two individuals in Pakistan, and carried $12,000 in cash on him at the airport.
“On January 18, 2017 at 12:09 pm, an international wire transfer request form was submitted [at the Congressional Federal Credit Union] at the Longworth House Office Building in the District of Columbia, in the amount of $283,000.00, to two individuals in Faisalabad, Pakistan,” according to a 10-page affidavit obtained by TheDCNF.
Imran Awan, a Pakistani-born IT aide, had access to all emails and files of dozens of members of Congress, as well as the password to the iPad that Wasserman Schultz used for Democratic National Committee business before she resigned as its head in July 2016. He was apprehended while attempting to flee the U.S., Fox News first reported.
Soon after Imran began working for Wasserman Schultz in 2005, four of his relatives appeared on the payroll of other Democrats — many from Wasserman Schultz’s home state of Florida — at inflated salaries, but Democratic staffers said they were rarely seen at work. They collected $4 million in total.
House authorities told members in February that Awan and his relatives were suspects in a criminal investigation into theft and IT abuses, and they were banned from the Capitol network.
Wasserman Schultz has refused to fire Awan, despite being a known criminal suspect in a cybersecurity probe for months, and has blocked Capitol Police from searching a laptop they confiscated because it was tied to Awan.