Exclusive: Police Report Indicates Wasserman Schultz IT Aide Planted Computer For Investigators To Find
Photo of Luke Rosiak
Luke Rosiak, Investigative Reporter - 5:02 PM 09/06/2017
http://dailycaller.com/2017/09/06/exclu ... zs-laptop/
A laptop that Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz has frantically fought to keep prosecutors from examining may have been planted for police to find by her since-indicted staffer, Imran Awan, along with a letter to the U.S. Attorney.
U.S. Capitol Police found the laptop after midnight April 6, 2017, in a tiny room that formerly served as a phone booth in the Rayburn House Office Building, according to a Capitol Police report reviewed by The Daily Caller News Foundation’s Investigative Group. Alongside the laptop were a Pakistani ID card, copies of Awan’s driver’s license and congressional ID badge, and letters to the U.S. attorney. Police also found notes in a composition notebook marked “attorney-client privilege.”
The laptop had the username “RepDWS,” even though the Florida Democrat and former Democratic National Committee chairman previously said it was Awan’s computer and that she had never even seen it.
Wasserman Schultz’s laptop was left in an old phone booth in the Rayburn building like this one. / Photo: DCNF
Awan was banned Feb. 2, 2017, from the congressional computer network because he is a suspect in a cybersecurity investigation, but he still had access to House facilities because Wasserman Schultz continued to employ him.
The laptop was found on the second floor of the Rayburn building — a place Awan would have had no reason to go because Wasserman Schultz’s office is in the Longworth building and the other members who employed him had fired him.
Wasserman Schultz used a televised May 18, 2017 congressional hearing on the Capitol Police budget to threaten “consequences” if Chief Matthew Verderosa did not give her the laptop. “If a member loses equipment,” it should be given back, she said.
Verderosa told her the laptop couldn’t be returned because it was tied to a criminal suspect. Wasserman Schultz reiterated that, while Awan was a suspect, the computer should be returned because it is “a member’s … if the member is not under investigation.”
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She changed her story two months later, claiming it was Awan’s laptop — bought with taxpayer funds from her office — and she had never seen it. She said she only sought to protect Awan’s rights. “This was not my laptop,” she said August 3. “I have never seen that laptop. I don’t know what’s on the laptop.”
Awan, his wife, Hina Alvi, and two of his Pakistani-born brothers are at the center of a joint FBI-Capitol Police cybersecurity criminal investigation of their IT work for dozens of Democratic House members.
Awan was arrested by the FBI at Dulles International Airport July 25, 2017, while trying to board a flight to his native Pakistan and then indicted on four counts of bank fraud in connection with his wire transfer of nearly $300,000 to Pakistan. The bank fraud charges are tangential to the cybersecurity probe.
The circumstances of the laptop’s appearance described in the police report suggest Wasserman Schultz was trying to keep the police from reviewing a laptop that Awan himself may have wanted them to find. The former phone booth room where police found the items is small, and there was no obvious reason to enter it.
Leaving important items there accidentally would seem extremely unlikely, according to Rep. Louie Gohmert, a Texas Republican, former prosecutor, and member of the House Judiciary Committee.Did Imran Want Capitol Police To Find Wasserman Schultz's Laptop?
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“Imran Awan is a calculating person who made great efforts to cover his tracks, both electronically and physically,” Gohmert told TheDCNF. “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.”
Even though the laptop was allegedly used only by an IT aide who worked for numerous members, Wasserman Schultz has hired an outside counsel, William Pittard, to argue that the laptop not be examined. Pittard argued that the speech and debate clause — which only protects a member’s information directly related to legislative duties — should prevent prosecutors from examining the laptop’s contents, TheDCNF has learned. Pittard did not respond to requests for comment.
Pittard, a partner with KaiserDillon, is the former acting general counsel of the House. Hiring an outside counsel to argue the speech and debate clause on behalf of Wasserman Schultz is highly unusual, because the general counsel of the House offers opinions on speech and debate issues for free.
The most recent notable example of a member hiring an outside attorney to argue a more aggressive interpretation is former Louisiana Rep. William Jefferson, who was convicted Aug. 4, 2009 of “using his office to try to enrich himself and relatives through a web of bribes and payoffs involving business ventures in Africa.” Investigators found $100,000 in cash in his freezer.
The collection of documents found in Rayburn tied the laptop to Awan and ensured that police would keep the computer. The reporting officer wrote that when he saw Awan’s name, he recalled guarding an interrogation of him a few months earlier. The “attorney client privilege” notation also prevented police from immediately reviewing some of the papers.
Nonetheless, the officer opened the MacBook and found that its login screen did not have Awan’s username, but rather “RepDWS.”
A police report reviewed by TheDCNF said: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. While reviewing the inventory of the bag contents, the officer found
#1 a Pakistani ID card with the name Mohommed Ashraf Awan
#2 a copy – not original – of a drivers license with name Imran Awan
#3 a copy (front and back) of his congressional ID
#4 an Apple laptop with the homescreen initials ‘RepDWS’
#5 composition notebooks with notes handwritten saying ‘attorney client privilege’ and possibly discussing case details below
#6 loose letters addressed to US Attorney of DC discussing the apparent owner of the bag being investigated.
Approximately 3-4 months ago officer was requested by SAA as police presence of 4 individuals being interviewed, including the bag owner. It is unknown to the officer whether he is still employed.
Imran Awan: A Continuing DCNF Investigative Group Series
Court docs
Awan Asks Judge To Remove GPS, Citing Possible Emergency With Kids--Who Are In Pakistan
Has Secret, Still-Active House Account--123@mail.house.gov--Linked To Intelligence Specialist
DWS 'Islamophobia' Claim Prompts Angered Witnesses To Go Public
Rep. Yvette Clarke Quietly Signed Away $120,000 In Missing Equipment
Imran, Hina Indicted For Conspiracy Against U.S.
DWS Now Says Laptop She Sought To Keep From Police Was Awan's, Not Hers
Liquidating $1.8M In Real Estate When Arrested, Some Still Pending
DWS Seemingly Planned To Pay Suspect Even While He Lived In Pakistan
Lawyer Is Longtime Clinton Associate
Arrested At Airport After Wiring $300k To Pakistan
FBI Seized Smashed Hard Drives From Home
Ex-DNC Head 'Negotiating' With Police Over Letting Them See Evidence
Dems Tying Themselves Into Knots To Ignore Criminal Probe
'You'd Like Him:' Associates Describe 'Cunning,' Charismatic Con Artist
In Personal Lives, Evidence Of Massive Cons
House Dems Hired A Fired McDonald's Worker As Email Administrator
DWS Admits To Violating Network Security, Blames House
Wasserman Schultz Threatened Police Chief For Gathering Evidence
Suspect Has Fled To Pakistan, Relative Says
House IT Aides Fear Suspects In Hill Breach Are Blackmailing Members
Read the Court Docs Detailing Their Greed, Ruthlessness
Paul Ryan: Capitol Police Getting 'Assistance' On Criminal Investigation
Brothers Could Read Every Email Of Dozens Of Congressmen
...Also Had Access To DNC Emails
...Allegedly Kept Stepmom In 'Captivity' To Access Offshore Cash
...Received $4 Million From Dem Reps
...Owed Money To Hezbollah-Connected Fugitive
...Secretly Took $100K In Iraqi Money
Brothers Had Massive Debts, Years Of Suspicious Activity
House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs Committee Members IT CompromisedThe IT guys in the House criminal probe could read these members' emails
The Awans and their associates collected more than $5 million in pay from congressional offices, often drawing chief-of-staff level pay though there is reason to believe many didn't even show up. They are suspected of cybersecurity violations.
The money is broken down by year, congressional office and family member paid:
Imran, Abid and Jamal Awan and Hina Alvi, Natalia Sova and Rao Abbas.
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SonicG » 08 Mar 2017 02:47 wrote:Interesting...I looked at the latest video by George Webb who seems to be leading the charge but all of his stuff is video only. The articles seem to be all over the place. I am buried in work so don't have time to look at it all, but I would love to see the mainstream press pick up on this. Foreign spies in Congress supported by the Democrats? I mean, holy shit...Oh, them being Pakistanis with ties to Iran? Get thee to your bunker if you have one...Cannot wait for Trump to tweet on this!!
House Democrats fire two IT staffers amid criminal investigation
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/h ... wan-235569
EXCLUSIVE: House Dem IT Guys In Security Probe Secretly Took $100K In Iraqi Money
http://dailycaller.com/2017/02/20/exclu ... z4ahNJinqo
House Democrats Delayed Dismissal Of IT Staff 'Hackers' Because They Were Muslim American
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-03-0 ... m-american
http://thedailycoin.org/author/george-webb/
with links to videos such as
Day 135 - How to Catch a Spy, Awan Brothers Saga Deepens . Part 2