Wasserman Schultz doubles down on Imran Awan COVERUP

U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said Tuesday that nothing has happened to change her belief that she did the right thing by keeping an information technology aide on the payroll long after other members of Congress fired him when they learned he was under investigation.

Imran Awan and his wife, Hina Alvi, were indicted last week in Washington, D.C., on four counts of bank fraud and unlawful monetary transactions.

“He’s not my staffer. He no longer works for me. And when he was arrested, I terminated him,” she said. “I kept him on the payroll during the time that he was not arrested and not charged with anything. And that was because, as I said, that I was concerned about the violation of his due process rights and also that there were racial and ethnic profiling concerns as well.”

Awan is a Pakistani-born Muslim who is now a U.S. citizen. Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, said his religious faith may have been a factor in the decision to investigate Awan and his relatives.

Awan, Alvi and other relatives all worked as shared employees, drawing part-time salaries doing IT work for a large group of members of Congress.

The charges, which alleged the couple conspired to obtain home equity lines of credit on rental properties that weren’t actually residences they lived in, were not related to their work for Wasserman Schultz or the other members of Congress. The indictment resulted in a new round of criticism from conservative activists, the Republican Party, and Wasserman Schultz’s Democratic primary challenger who said it raised questions about her actions.

Conservative websites have seized on the allegation that the couple sent $283,000 to Pakistan through a wire transfer. The indictment charges they transferred the money in January, with Awan first stating the money was for “funeral arrangements,” and then — after a credit union employee questioned the size of the transfer for that purpose — Awan “changed his reason to ‘purchasing property.’”

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Wasserman Schultz wouldn’t say whether she thought there was anything suspicious or troubling about sending the money to Pakistan. “I don’t know anything about his personal finances, and so it’s not something that I am really able to comment on.”

P/C DONKEY HOTEY