The Debbie Wasserman-Schultz interview about Imran Awan is here. And it's every bit as insane as you would expect.
Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz defiantly stands by her decision to keep an information technology aide on her payroll for six months after he was banned from the House network and fired by other members of Congress.
“I believe that I did the right thing, and I would do it again,” Wasserman Schultz said Thursday in an exclusive interview with the Sun Sentinel. “There are times when you can’t be afraid to stand alone, and you have to stand up for what’s right."
Sometimes you have to do what's right. And sometimes the right thing to do is keep a Pakistani criminal employed in a sensitive position while his crimes are unraveling. And only fire him once he actually tries to flee the country.
And she would do it again.
And, she said, she believes he may have been put under scrutiny because of his religious faith. Awan is Muslim.
Awan's lawyer is already playing the Islamophobia card. Funny how DWS is echoing Awan's lawyer.
In February, Wasserman Schultz said, chiefs of staffs for members of Congress were told that Awan was under investigation and his access to the House network was suspended. House payroll records show that multiple members of Congress terminated Awan quickly, early in February.
Instead of firing him, Wasserman Schultz said her office worked with the House chief administration officer to develop a job description that “would allow him to continue to do work … until such time as there were other charges brought or we had some evidence that there was something that was produced that warranted further action.”
Even without access to the IT network, Wasserman Schultz said, “there are plenty of technological issues that an IT person can assist with. He didn’t have access to the network, but he was able to give us guidance and advice and troubleshoot on a wide variety of other technological issues.” IT isn’t limited to computer network issues, she said; it includes phones, printers, the website and helping people with software.
This is bizarre and silly.
You're a top government official. Your top IT guy is under investigation for a long list of issues. And every day brings new charges. So you leave him in place to, supposedly, help you hook up printers.
Meanwhile you keep paying him far more than any ordinary Congress IT guy.
Sure you could replace him with an IT guy who isn't under investigation. But you're too principled for that. Not for rigging the Dem primaries. But to replace your IT guy until he's actually convicted of a crime.
Then Debbie claims that he was probably just being investigated for using Dropbox.
That's usually the way it works. You use Dropbox. Then there's a six month investigation. Then you and your wife try to flee the country with a ton of money. For using Dropbox.
Wasserman Schultz said Awan didn’t have access to any classified information. She and other members of Congress aren’t allowed to store classified information in their offices and on their computers.
Neither was Debbie's mistress, Hillary Clinton.
Wasserman Schultz said she hired Awan when she went to Congress in 2005, at the recommendation of then-U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, a Democrat from Palm Beach County
Wexler. Oh boy. This should be fun.
She said her concerns over the investigation were the reason she grilled Capitol Police Chief Matthew R. Verderosa about a laptop computer at a May 18 House Appropriations subcommittee hearing.
She said the laptop in question was issued by her office to Awan. “He accidentally left it somewhere,” a loss Wasserman Schultz said was reported to the Capitol Police. When the Capitol Police recovered the laptop, the agency wanted to search its contents.
She said she has agreed to allow the police to examine the laptop and wasn’t attempting to hide anything. “This was not my laptop. I have never seen that laptop. I don’t know what’s on the laptop,” she said.
She said her concern about the nature of the investigation was what prompted her to warn Verderosa at the hearing that he could face consequences. “I was trying to get more information I wanted to make sure they were following the rules.”
Debbie's excuse-making skills are up there with Hillary's. That's not a compliment.
Her explanation is that she was threatening the Capitol Police over the return of a laptop which she had never seen and didn't care about... purely on principle. DWS. A very principled woman.