As the investigation into why former DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz failed to fire IT staffer Imran Awan after he allegedly stole House property, wired nearly $300,000 to Pakistan and was arrested at the airport for bank fraud, the Congresswoman is accusing the police and FBI agents of racism. Further, she's essentially calling investigators Islamophobic because Awan is Muslim.
“When their investigation was reviewed with me, I was presented with no evidence of anything that they were being investigated for. And so that in me gave me great concern that his due process rights were being violated. That there were racial and ethnic profiling concerns that I had,’” Wasserman Schultz told the Sun Sentinel in an exclusive interview.
Wasserman Schultz has been under heavy criticism for failing to fire Awan after he was fired by every other Democrat he worked for on Capitol Hill. In February Awan and his brother were banned from working on House systems or computers after evidence of wrongdoing started to surface. Wasserman Schultz kept him on board as a staffer until the end of July and finally fired him after he was arrested at the airport attempting to leave the country. Regardless, she says she has no regrets about how she handled the situation. A number of her colleagues have called on her to testify under oath about her knowledge of Awan's actions.
Earlier this year Wasserman Schultz scolded Capitol Police Chief Matthew Verderosa for confiscating an office laptop as part of their investigation into Awan. She even went so far as threatening "consequences" if it were not returned, a conflict interest since she sits on the committee that allocates funding for the department.
Capitol police and the FBI agents investigating this case aren't Islamophobic as Wasserman Schultz has accused. Instead, they want to know about why Awan potentially stole sensitive national security information from the House of Representatives on top of defrauding the American taxpayer by double charging for equipment.
