Feb. 2: Several members of a Pakistani immigrant family who work as IT for several democrats are abruptly fired:
Three brothers who managed office information technology for members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and other lawmakers were abruptly relieved of their duties on suspicion that they accessed congressional computers without permission.
Brothers Abid, Imran, and Jamal Awan were barred from computer networks at the House of Representatives Thursday, The Daily Caller News Foundation Investigative Group has learned.
Three members of the intelligence panel and five members of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs were among the dozens of members who employed the suspects on a shared basis. The two committees deal with many of the nation’s most sensitive issues and documents, including those related to the war on terrorism.
Also among those whose computer systems may have been compromised is Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Florida Democrat who was previously the target of a disastrous email hack when she served as chairman of the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 campaign.
They were well paid:
Jamal, who public records suggest is only 22 years old and first began working in the House when he was 20, was paid nearly $160,000 a year, or three times the average House IT staff salary, according to InsideGov, which tracks congressional salaries. Abid was paid $161,000 and Imran $165,000.
Mar. 1: In fact, they’ve been paid over $4 million since 2009:
Five members of a Pakistani family under criminal investigation for allegedly misusing their positions as computer administrators for dozens of Democrats in the House of Representatives were paid at least $4 million from July 2009 to the present, The Daily Caller News Foundation’s Investigative Group has learned.
Evidence suggests some of the dozens of House Democrats — many of whom serve on the intelligence, homeland security and foreign affairs committees — who employed the suspects were inexplicably paying people they rarely or never saw. See the interactive graphic at the end of this story for the names of the employing representatives.
The plot thickens:
The suspects had full access to the emails and office computer files of the members for whom they worked. A focus of the investigation by the U.S. Capitol Police is an off-site server on which congressional data was allegedly loaded without the knowledge of authorities.
Even before Capitol Police told chiefs of staff for the employing Democrats Feb. 2 that the Awans — including brothers Imran, Abid and Jamal, and two of their wives, Hina Alvi and Natalia Sova — were suspects in a criminal theft and cybersecurity probe, there were multiple signs that something was amiss.
April 30: At least one of the brothers is embroiled in a life insurance conflict:
A former congressional information technology (IT) aide allegedly threatened to have his stepmother’s Pakistani relatives kidnapped if she talked to U.S. law enforcement authorities, according to court documents obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation’s (TheDCNF) Investigative Group.
“Imran Awan threatened that he is very powerful and if I ever call the police again, [he] will … kidnap my family members back in Pakistan,” Awan’s stepmother, Samina Gilani, claimed in the documents filed April 14 in Fairfax County, Va., in the case of Americo Financial Life and Annuity Insurance Company v. Abid A. Awan and Samina Ashraf Gilani.
Imran Awan and his brothers Abid and Jamal are under criminal investigation by U.S. Capitol Police on suspicion they abused their administrator-level access to sensitive congressional data, as reported Feb. 4 by TheDCNF.
“Imran Awan did admit to me that my phone is tapped and there are devices installed in my house,” including one Gilani claimed in the court filing to have seen “behind the printer.” She also claimed Imran Awan represents himself in Pakistan as a powerful person in Congress and is given police escorts when he spends time in the country.
There are accusations of fraud:
Americo said Muhammad Shah took out a $50,000 life insurance policy in 2012, naming Gilani as beneficiary. But on Nov. 16, as Shah lay on his deathbed, Americo received an Ownership Change Request form to allow Abid to be in charge of future administrative decisions.
Then on Jan. 11, Awan used his newly gained status to make himself the beneficiary of the policy instead of his stepmother. The form’s required witness signature was blank, and it was rejected. A week later, Abid re-submitted it but with a notary’s seal.
A police report shows that in January 2017, Gilani called Fairfax police claiming her stepsons refused to let her see her dying husband in his final moments. Police said Abid angrily waved an unsigned power-of-attorney document at an officer and refused to give Shah’s location.
Shah died of cancer Jan. 16 and Americo received a claim on Feb. 2 for the $50,000 to be paid to Abid. Americo told the court it also received a letter from Gilani contending the “beneficiary changes to the policy were procured through fraud.”
Inexplicably, democrats Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and Gregory Meeks have up to now refused to fire the brothers despite the brothers being accused of stealing equipment and more:
Alvi, Awan and three other House aides, including Abid Awan and Jamal Awan, relatives of Imran Awan, and Rao Abbas, are all linked to the criminal investigation being conducted by the U.S. Capitol Police.
The five current and former House staffers are accused of stealing equipment from members’ offices without their knowledge and committing serious, potentially illegal, violations on the House IT network, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the probe.
The curious refusal of democrats to sever ties with the brothers has raised the possibility of extortion:
Congressional technology aides are baffled that data-theft allegations against four former House IT workers — who were banned from the congressional network — have largely been ignored, and they fear the integrity of sensitive high-level information.
Imran Awan and three relatives were colleagues until police banned them from computer networks at the House of Representatives after suspicion the brothers accessed congressional computers without permission.
Five Capitol Hill technology aides told The Daily Caller News Foundation’s Investigative Group that members of Congress have displayed an inexplicable and intense loyalty towards the suspects who police say victimized them. The baffled aides wonder if the suspects are blackmailing representatives based on the contents of their emails and files, to which they had full access.
“I don’t know what they have, but they have something on someone. It’s been months at this point” with no arrests, said Pat Sowers, who has managed IT for several House offices for 12 years. “Something is rotten in Denmark.”
Someone allowed one of the staff under investigation to leave the country:
A criminal suspect in an investigation into a major security breach on the House of Representatives computer network has abruptly left the country and gone to Pakistan, where her family has significant assets and VIP-level protection, a relative and others told The Daily Caller News Foundation’s Investigative Group.
Hina Alvi, her husband Imran Awan, and his brothers Abid and Jamal were highly paid shared IT administrators working for multiple House Democrats until their access to congressional IT systems was terminated Feb. 2 as a result of the investigation. Capitol Police confirmed the investigation is ongoing, but no arrests have been reported in the case.
A reminder:
Their positions gave them access to members’ emails and confidential files. In addition, Imran was given the password for an iPad used by then-Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Florida Democrat. The five came to the U.S. from Pakistan.
Which may go a long way explaining Wasserman-Schultz’s threatening the Capitol Police who are investigating the Pakistanis:
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz threatened the chief of the U.S. Capitol Police with “consequences” for holding equipment that she says belongs to her in order to build a criminal case against a Pakistani staffer suspected of massive cybersecurity breaches involving funneling sensitive congressional data offsite.
The Florida lawmaker used her position on the committee that sets the police force’s budget to press its chief to relinquish the piece of evidence Thursday, in what could be considered using her authority to attempt to interfere with a criminal investigation.
The Capitol Police and outside agencies are pursuing Imran Awan, who has run technology for the Florida lawmaker since 2005 and was banned from the House network in February on suspicion of data breaches and theft.
Leaders of the democrat party are playing dumb:
When asked by The Daily Caller why one of the individuals under investigation still has a role as an adviser to Wasserman Schultz, Pelosi responded:
“Well the people under investigation [include] the Attorney General of the United States. I mean, what are we talking about here?”
She continued, “You have a very specific charge there. I haven’t followed that very closely.”
When TheDC pressed further, she added, “I’m not sufficiently understanding the situation to make any concern about it, but there are plenty of people who are under in investigation who still have their jobs.”
Rep. Keith Ellison knows nothing either:
Minnesota Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison, co-chair of the Democratic National Committee, said he did not know anything about the case. He responded, “I’m at a massive disadvantage because I don’t really know the issue at all.”
Those under investigation are seem to have conducted some truly questionable activities. Their actions directly involve many democrat representatives and they had access to much sensitive information. It strains credulity to believe that the leaders of the party are unaware of the episode. What do these scofflaws have on the democrats?
Something is rotten in Denmark.
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Except for liberals being foolish.
Isn’t the DailyCaller somewhat akin to the DailyKoes or HuffingtonPost when it comes to constructing a partisan argument?
What’s next, Moonbattery.com for a building a credible case? Maybe Sean Hannity?
Of far greater importance and necessity is inventing crimes Trump has committed and investigating those imaginary infractions. People illegally gaining access to Congressional computers and some of those very people who were invaded obstructing the investigation (there is only one way THAT makes any sense) is of no significance whatsoever.
The left has turned this government upside down and need to be purged from any and all positions of authority.
@Ajay42302: It’s just like an anonymous paid source at WAPO!!
Obviously the thing to do is to find out who actually hired them, there were things in their background that should have prohibited them from gaining a position anywhere near security levels they were involved with. Some college IT grad involved with the young democrats club would have just been so honored to have the position. Getting paid what these Pakis were paid they could have paid off student loans.
This isnt the BIG scandal its the spying on Trump during the election by Obama, sure makes Watergate look like a parking ticket in comparison.
More mindless braying from the Dumb-O=Crat their too dumb to even think