 |
| Debbie Wasserman-Schultza another swamp Idiot. |
During his campaign, then GOP-nominee Donald J. Trump pledged
repeatedly to “drain the swamp” in Washington, D.C. Though he’d been
around politics for years prior to throwing his hat into the
presidential ring, there’s no way he could have fully understood just
how wide and deep — and incestuous — the stinking D.C. swamp really is.
Now a new scandal that appears to threaten primarily Democratic
lawmakers on Capitol Hill has emerged, and it seems to have all of the
makings of a real-life House of Cards.
As
reported by The Daily Caller,
four Pakistani relatives — at least three of them brothers — who were
in charge of managing office information technology for members of the
House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and other members on
other panels, were suddenly relieved of their duties back in February
after authorities suspected them of accessing the information of some
congressional members without permission.
“Brothers Abid, Imran, and Jamal Awan were barred from computer
networks at the House of Representatives,” the site reported then.
The computers of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who was the target of
a disastrous leak of stolen data from the Democratic National Committee
when she was serving as chairwoman, as well as other Democratic members
were suspected to be compromised.
Fast forward to Monday, when
The Daily Caller followed up on its initial reporting,
saying that despite allegations of having committed crimes, no charges
have yet to be filed against any of the former IT staffers, leaving
current congressional IT workers to think that the integrity of
high-level, sensitive information may have been compromised.
What’s more, affected congressional members “have displayed an
inexplicable and intense loyalty towards the suspects who police say
victimized them,” the site noted, adding that current aides suspect that
perhaps the fired Pakistani brothers may have something incriminating
or otherwise sensitive enough to use as blackmail over the members of
Congress.
“I don’t know what they have, but they have something on someone,”
said Pat Sowers, who has overseen IT for several members of Congress for
a dozen years. “It’s been months at this point” without anyone being
arrested. “Something is rotten in Denmark.”
The DC noted further suspicious revelations:
A manager at a tech-services company that works with Democratic
House offices said he approached congressional offices, offering their
services at one-fourth the price of Awan and his Pakistani brothers, but
the members declined. At the time, he couldn’t understand why his
offers were rejected but now he suspects the Awans exerted some type of
leverage over members.
“There’s no question about it: If I was accused of a tenth of what
these guys are accused of, they’d take me out in handcuffs that same
day, and I’d never work again,” he said.
After the Awans were banned, 20 House members’ offices had to find a
replacement IT company, but another contractor who thought he’d be a
lock to get their business has been thwarted by them, saying they
believe he was responsible for blowing the whistle on the Awans’ theft
of data.
One House IT worker who talked to
The Daily Caller on
condition of anonymity said that some, but not all, of the offices left
stranded by the Awans’ ban were “thin clients” which sent all data to a
server off site, in violation of House rules.
In addition to the Awan brothers, two of their wives — Hina Alvi and
Natalia Sova — were also on the payrolls of various Democratic House
members soon after one of them began working for Wasserman Schulz in
2005. Since 2010,
The Daily Caller reports, they have collected $4 million. (RELATED:
Do these fired House IT workers have dirt on several Congress members?)
“The number of offices they had would definitely be suspicious. The
loyalty [members] had [coupled with] customer service that wasn’t
there,” Sowers said. “I love the Hill but to see this clear lack of
concern over what appears to be a major breach bothers me. Everyone has
said for years they were breaking the rules, but it’s just been a matter
of time.”
Understand that as IT workers, they had access to
all computerized data in members’ computers.
“You have the power to shut down the office, remove all their data
and lock everyone out,” said the anonymous IT worker. “It’s got to be a
trusted adviser. How could you not see this? Maybe it’s not specifically
blackmail, maybe it’s, you knew this was going on and let me do this”
for years.
Or,
it’s blackmail.
A separate Democratic IT contractor told The DC that members “are
saying don’t say anything, this will all blow over if we don’t say
anything.” The Awans “had [members] in their pocket,” and “there are a
lot of members who could go down over this.”
