Fellow Lawmakers Want Answers from Debbie Wasserman Schultz Following IT Staffer’s Arrest

Republican lawmakers called Friday for Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz to account for the arrested IT staffer who she kept on a generous payroll until Tuesday.

After Wasserman Schultz’s tech man Imran Awan was arrested by federal agents while trying to flee the country wiring ahead hundreds of thousands of dollar to his native Pakistan, several Republican congressmen expressed their view to the Washington Free Beacon that the Florida congresswoman and former Democratic National Committee Chairwoman owed an explanation. The access Awan had to congressional computer systems has raised serious concerns over whether he could have obtained national security sensitive information.

“In addition to the criminal case that is now underway, Congress needs to get answers regarding the scope of Imran Awan’s misconduct and the access he had to sensitive material in the United States House of Representatives, including why he remained on the House payroll for so long,” Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) told the Free Beacon.

DeSantis’s thoughts were mirrored by Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-TX), a House Judiciary Committee Member. “You don’t have to be all that great at hacking to hack into almost anyone’s email and calendar,” Gohmert told the Free Beacon, continuing:

Our enemies that would like to bring down the U.S. would love to have the calendars of every single member of Congress to see who’s vulnerable to what and how they can be manipulated. There’s a reason that you have to have a background check in order to work on our system.

While Wasserman Schultz refused to fire Awan even after the criminal investigation into his alleged conduct became public in February, many of her fellow Democrats did. According to documents obtained by Breitbart News, 17 other Democratic reps used Awan’s services in 2017 alone, with several others employing him and his brothers since 2009. He and his family are reported to have received over $4 million from House Democrats over this time.

Among the biggest spenders on Awan’s IT services are Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-OH), Rep. Joyce Birdson Beatty (D-OH), and Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO), all of whom paid Awan more than $10,000 for “part-time” work in their offices in 2016 alone.