WITH ALMOST NO PRESS ATTENTION OUTSIDE THE DAILY CALLER, THE HOUSE DEMS’ IT SCANDAL MARCHES ON: Imran Awan’s Own Wife Accuses Him Of Fraud.
The indicted husband-and-wife team of former IT aides to Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz sat directly across from each other at the defendants’ table in federal court Friday in Washington, D.C., but refused to look at each other.
Even as they are co-defendants in a U.S. case, Imran Awan’s own wife, Hina Alvi, has become the latest person to accuse him of fraud, filing papers against him in Pakistani court, according to Pakistani news channel ARY.
The couple were in U.S. court to face bank fraud charges related to sending money to Pakistan around the time they learned they were under investigation for abuses related to their work managing IT for members of Congress. Awan was arrested at Dulles Airport in July attempting to board a flight to Pakistan.
Wasserman Schultz, former chair of the Democratic National Committee, and other House Democrats have vigorously defended Awan, claiming the Capitol Police might be drumming up charges out of Islamaphobia.
Alvi was arraigned Friday on four felony counts, and Awan, who has already been arraigned, requested that his GPS monitoring bracelet be taken off — citing the fact that his wife was in America as the reason he was not a flight risk.
Yet the couple entered and left the court separately, have different lawyers, and Awan’s lawyer told the judge that the husband and wife are staying “in a one-bedroom apartment and then also a house.”
Pakistani legal papers published by the news channel show Alvi recently accused Awan of illegally marrying another woman, and of fraud. “My husband Imran Awan son of Muhammad Ashraf Awan, committed fraud along with offence of polygamy,” she charges in the papers.
Hina’s U.S. lawyer, Nikki Lotze, did not dispute the account.
Related: Imran Awan ‘Very Strongly’ Wants To Block Review Of Hard Drive, Was Using Alias.
A Capitol Police report shows that the laptop was found in a phone booth in the Rayburn House Office Building after midnight, after Imran had already been banned from touching the House network, and that the laptop had the username RepDWS.
In an emotional exchange caught on video in May, Wasserman Schultz demanded that the Capitol Police chief return the laptop, saying there would be “consequences” if they did not. She said “if a member loses” equipment, police should not be able to look at it. She hired an outside lawyer to try to block prosecutors from looking at it, invoking the “speech and debate” clause, which covers members’ legislative activity. Two months later, she said it was actually Imran’s laptop and she had never seen it. She did not fire Imran for months after the laptop was found in his backpack, and continued to pay him until his arrest.
Flashback: House IT Aides Fear Suspects In Hill Breach Are Blackmailing Members With Their Own Data.