What were they getting?
I've wondered about this, too.
My first guess is that at the top of the chain, Debbie, or the other Congressman before her who first hired Awan was told that he was "a friend" who did IT and to hire him. Since he was a young foreigner, this was unusual, but government hirings are often based on personal connections.
I further suppose that the order came from someone very high up in the Dem hierarchy, such as Hillary/Huma. Once Awan was "in", succeeding new Dem Reps would just ask around for who they should hire, and it snowballed. One thing you can say about the Dem Party, the leaders do exercise top-down commmand and control, unlike the splintered GOP and GOP-e. Combine that with the usual Dem contempt for government security, and you've got the recipe for a disaster.
Since Awan was "in", it tends to explain why the Dems were so reluctant to kick him out, especially DWS (Debbie), who would have been closest to the original suggestion to hire him.
The more you examine the Paki/infiltration, the more you sense that D/W/S did not act alone on this.......but that fact does not exonerate her treasonous activity.
This gal is super-ambitious. D/W/S actually has a spreadsheet of "people who owe her"....people she did favors for.
D/W/S was especially keen on getting into the good graces of the half-caste Royal Idiot b/c it suited her crass self-serving ambitions.
Strangely enough, on the surface it seemed like the half/caste kept shrugging her off.....as she pursued him w/ a vengeance.
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Distilling the info, one concludes, D/W/S was a willing "doer of tasks," but the Royal Idiot had to give the appearance that they were not connected.
The Pakis could not have (A) gotten security clearance, (B) gargantuan salaries, and, (C) gotten visas .....without some pretty high-level help.
The grotesque salaries could be one way D/W/S and Hill Democrats got paid off........via campaign contributions, kickbacks, wire-transfers, and the like.
NOTE Imran's brother, Abid, has retained an attorney specializing in money laundering litigation......we also know Abid spent considerable time in the Obama WH.
I tend to agree on your theory...Awan had some front-door opened for him, and got friendly with various people. It wouldn’t surprise me someone put a $100k down as a donation to a campaign fund...to get the front-door opened.