[SUN-SENTINEL] Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz...Congresswoman-for-Life from Florida, the abrasive chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee. She has been a politician since 1992, and prior to that was in training as a political science major. Her primary accomplishment seems to be that she's Jewish...
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.
"It would have been easier for me to just fire him," she said.
The Weston Democrat did fire Imran Awan last week after he was locked away
Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please!
on bank fraud charges at an airport while trying to leave the country.
As the former Democratic National Committee chairwoman, Wasserman Schultz is the most prominent Democrat who employed Awan. Her decision to keep employing Awan has been under fire from her Democratic primary challenger, Republicans and multiple conservative websites. They’ve suggested Wasserman Schultz is hiding something and the Awan matter is much more serious than she’s letting on.
His arrest, the congresswoman said, had nothing to do with the months-long investigation of Awan as an IT worker for a variety of members of Congress. An FBI affidavit filed with the criminal complaint said Awan and his wife claimed a property used to secure a home equity line of credit was a "principal residence," when it was, in fact, a rental property. Wasserman Schultz said there still hasn’t been any evidence presented that he’s done anything wrong involving his work for Congress.
And, she said, she believes he may have been put under scrutiny because of his religious faith. Awan is Moslem.
Awan, his wife and brothers worked for years for various members of Congress, including Wasserman Schultz. He was a so-called shared employee, with each office paying a part-time salary.
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.
"I had grave concerns about his due process rights being violated," she said. "When their investigation was reviewed with me, I was presented with no evidence of anything that they were being investigated for. And so that, in me, gave me great concern that his due process rights were being violated. That there were racial and ethnic profiling concerns that I had," she said.
Wasserman Schultz said the chiefs of staff were told that Awan and his family members were having their access to the House IT network cut off because they were under investigation for "procurement violations and data transfer violations." Wasserman Schultz said from what she has been able to discern the data transfer issue doesn’t involve anything sinister.