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Posted on 11/10/2018 9:18:35 AM PST by jazusamo
Clean House at Justice Department
Major New Lawsuit on Awan Brothers Democratic IT Scandal
Judicial Watch Sues for Docs on Influence Peddling Scandal At Energy Department
Government Warning: Narco-Terrorism will Worsen Under New Leftist Leader
Attorney General Jeff Sessions has resigned , bringing an end to his controversial tenure as the nation’s top law enforcement officer. He advanced some significant policy advances for the rule of law, but made a terrible mistake in recusing himself needlessly from the so-called Russia investigation. This led to the abusive, unconstitutional Mueller special counsel investigation of President Trump. Frankly, President Trump has been terribly victimized by Justice Department and FBI corruption.
And disappointingly, the Justice Department under AG Sessions was a black hole in terms of transparency. It covered up institutional misconduct and, unbelievably, went out of its way to defend misconduct by Hillary Clinton and other Obama administration officials.
I hope transparency and rooting out corruption and abuse becomes the focus of any new attorney general.
Now that President Trump has removed AG Sessions and appointed Matthew Whitaker as acting attorney general, the new DOJ leadership should end the abusive Mueller investigation and finally do a serious prosecution of Clinton’s email crimes and other misconduct.
In the meantime, your Judicial Watch will continue its independent oversight of the Justice Department through its myriad Freedom of Information Act lawsuits on Deep State abuses.
Of the many bizarre corruption stories in Congress, one of the strangest was the IT scandal in the House of Representatives on the Democratic side of the aisle. This scandal is of heightened public interest now that Democrats have gained control of the House.
As is often the case when the government refuses to fully investigate itself, we have stepped in, filing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Justice Department for all records of communications relating to the investigation into former Democratic information technology (IT) staffers Abid Awan, Imran Awan, Jamal Awan and Hina R. Alvi ( Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:18-cv-02563)).
Imran Awan and his family were banned from the House computer network in February 2017 after the House’s top law enforcement officer wrote that Imran is “ an ongoing and serious risk to the House of Representatives, possibly threatening the integrity of our information systems,” and that a server containing evidence had gone “missing.” The inspector general said server logs showed “unauthorized access” and procurement records were falsified.
Imran Awan was Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s top information technology aide. Most lawmakers fired Awan in February, but Wasserman Schultz kept him on until he was arrested in July , trying to board a flight for Pakistan.
Imran Awan was allowed a plea deal. He pleaded guilty to federal bank fraud, but prosecutors found no evidence that Awan “violated federal law with respect to the House computer systems.”
Color us skeptical that DOJ conducted a full investigation.
In October 2017, I participated in a discussion between House members and experts regarding the Wasserman Schultz/Awan Brothers/IT affair. During this discussion, I stated:
“Frankly when it comes to crimes with a political component, I fear the Justice Department is going to fear to tread. And because of the political nature of what went on (with the Awan family) they’re not going to push the House … and I fear that the Justice Department will be fearful of raising these issues with the House for fear of embarrassing the leadership of both parties … and that’s something we need to push the Justice Department on. That they don’t under-charge or under-investigate this for fear of the consequences that will happen if they push further and find something that no one wants to find, which is a national security threat at our breast here in the House.”
That is why Judicial Watch sued after the FBI failed to respond adequately to two FOIA requests.
The FBI claimed it could neither confirm nor deny records related to the first request, filed on May 26, 2017, seeking:
The timeframe for the requested records is May 2015 to the present.
Further, the FBI claimed that records related to a July 3, 2018, FOIA request were located in an investigative file and exempt from disclosure. That request sought:
It’s time for the full truth to come out about the House Democrat IT scandal, especially with the impending change of power in the House. Let’s hope the new leadership at the DOJ will bring transparency to this case, as well as many other pending FOIA investigations.
President Trump is aware of this strange situation. On June 7, 2018, he tweeted , “Our Justice Department must not let Awan & Debbie Wasserman Schultz off the hook. The Democrat I.T. scandal is a key to much of the corruption we see today. They want to make a “plea deal” to hide what is on their Server. Where is Server? Really bad!”
“Really bad” is right and Judicial Watch aims to get more of the truth about this major congressional scandal.
Off the Wall Ping!
Contact to be added.
Thank GOD for JW, but NOTHING will happen to the Awan Brothers and Family!
I agree, it’ll be a miracle if the any Awan’s are charged.
Time to bus a move.
Why would the Awan brothers IT behavior embarrass members of both parties? As far as I know, they worked for many Dem congressmen.
I believe because the GOP was in the majority and was afraid to go too deeply into it for fear it might involve them also.
bttt
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Thanks for the heads-up.
EXCERPT----this should focus our attention yet on how dangerously wide-open our government has allowed itself to become. While doing the research for my new book “Spies in Congress—Inside the Democrats’ Covered-Up Cyber Scandal” it became horrifyingly clear how open congressional offices are to insider threats. For instance, the group of Pakistani House IT aides who made up what amounted to a spy ring didn’t even have to undergo background checks to get their insider positions—jobs that allowed them to see and copy all of the emails and more from the members of Congress they worked for.
What other employer---besides the US Congress---allows former employees to access their networks?
Companies commonly terminate employees email accounts and their access before they even tell them they’ve been let go.
Evidence shows that Imran Awan, the head of the group who was an IT aide working for Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Dem-Fla), was spying on congressmen and even congressional staffers. A current IT aide who wants his name kept out of print told me Awan even used his own personal email address as the Apple IDs when setting up staffer’s phones. “The only reason I can think of for why Imran would do that is this would have given him the ability to see everything these staffers were doing,” said the House IT aide, a contracted employee who has more than a decade of experience working for congressmen.
The Pakistani House IT spying scandal, however, was swiftly covered up – b/c only Democrats in Congress were affected; the mainstream media apparently had no interest in pursuing the story.
But this lax security is not simply a political story. It puts every one of us in jeopardy. A congressman whose private emails or other data are in the hands of someone who can blackmail or otherwise influence them is a risk. For all of us. And without public pressure, it’s next to impossible to know whether Congress has tightened security to prevent this kind of spying from taking place.
A more recent case offers little to assuage such concerns. Only weeks ago, a volunteer on the staff of a member of the House, Jackson A. Cosko, was arrested after Capitol Police became aware the Wikipedia pages of three U.S. Senators had been edited to include restricted personal information without their knowledge or permission. “On the night of Oct. 2, 2018, according to the affidavit,” says a Department of Justice press release, “a witness saw Cosko at a computer in the office of a U.S. Senator who had once employed him. The witness confronted Cosko, who left the office. An investigation led to Cosko’s arrest by the US Capitol Police.”
If Cosko hadn’t posted the information, as he is alleged to have done, for political purposes (called “doxxing”) but had instead used it privately or even gave it or sold it to a news agency or a foreign government, he might never have been arrested. Or he might have gotten off scot-free....just as Imran Awan and his cabal of associates did.
By overlooking and explaining away how Hillary Clinton treated government data, including classified information, and then covering up what Imran Awan allegedly did for years in the House, the mainstream media has done a massive disservice to the state of our democracy. Light needs to be shined on Congress and on anyone who abuses the safeguards of our system so that reforms can take place.
SOURCE---https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/heres-why-hillary-clinton-losing-her-security-clearance-matters-for-the-rest-of-us.amp
Other reports say up to 80 House Democrats were involved.
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