{"id":95299,"date":"2017-10-11T06:48:55","date_gmt":"2017-10-11T06:48:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/imran-awan-case-lawmaker-calls-massive-data-transfers-from-wasserman-schultz-aide-a-substantial-security-threat.html"},"modified":"2017-10-11T06:48:55","modified_gmt":"2017-10-11T06:48:55","slug":"imran-awan-case-lawmaker-calls-massive-data-transfers-from-wasserman-schultz-aide-a-substantial-security-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/political\/imran-awan-case-lawmaker-calls-massive-data-transfers-from-wasserman-schultz-aide-a-substantial-security-threat.html","title":{"rendered":"Imran Awan case: Lawmaker calls ‘massive’ data transfers from Wasserman Schultz aide a ‘substantial security threat’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t
\n\t \"Garrett<\/a><\/p>\n

Former Wasserman Schultz staffer indicted on 4 counts<\/a><\/h4>\n

Garrett Tenney has the story<\/p>\n

A Republican lawmaker on Tuesday described the \u201cmassive\u201d data transfers on government servers by a former IT aide to Democratic Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz as \u201ca substantial security threat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese facts, standing alone, indicate a substantial security threat,\u201d Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Scott Perry said of the Imran Awan case during an informal hearing of Republican House members on Capitol Hill on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Awan pleaded not guilty in September to multiple federal charges including bank fraud and conspiracy. A grand jury had returned an indictment in August in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia charging Imran Awan and his wife, Hina Alvi, with a total of four charges.<\/p>\n

Perry, a member of the Homeland Security subcommittee on cyber security, said Tuesday that the House Office of Inspector General tracked the network usage of Awan and his associates on House servers and found that a \u201cmassive\u201d amount of data was flowing from the networks.<\/p>\n

Awan and other IT aides for House Democrats had been on investigators\u2019 radar for months over concerns of possible double-billing, alleged equipment theft and access to sensitive computer systems. Most lawmakers fired Awan in February, but Wasserman Schultz had kept him on until his arrest in July.<\/p>\n

THE DEMOCRATS\u2019 IT SCANDAL JUST GOT EVEN MORE BIZARRE<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

According to Perry, more than 5,700 logins by the five Awan associates were discovered on a single server within the House and 5,400 of those logins appeared unauthorized. That server, Perry said, belonged to then-Democratic Rep. Xavier Becerra, who is now attorney general in California.<\/p>\n

Perry said a criminal investigation by Capitol Police begun after the House Office of Inspector General reported its findings into Awan and his associates last year.<\/p>\n

The congressman said Capitol Police determined that an image they asked Imran to provide was falsified, believing it to be a \u201cdeliberate attempt to conceal the activities that they knew were against House policy and the law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perry also discussed how Capitol Police recovered a bag with a laptop featuring Wasserman Shultz\u2019s initials from a phone booth after midnight in the Rayburn building about two months after House investigators barred Awan and his coterie from access to House computer networks.<\/p>\n

The indictment itself addresses separate allegations that Awan and his wife engaged in a conspiracy to obtain home equity lines of credit from the Congressional Federal Credit Union by giving false information about two properties \u2013 and then sending the proceeds to individuals in Pakistan.<\/p>\n

The case has put renewed scrutiny on Wasserman Schultz for keeping Awan on the payroll for months, even after a criminal investigation was revealed and he was barred from the House IT network.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a recent interview published in the Sun Sentinel, Wasserman Schultz blamed the \u201cright-wing media circus fringe\u201d for the attention on Awan. The former head of the Democratic National Committee has suggested it’s all part of an effort to distract from the investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 campaign and possible ties to President Trump’s team.<\/p>\n

After Awan was arrested at Dulles airport in Virginia trying to board a plane to Pakistan, attorney Christopher Gowen told Fox News that federal authorities have no evidence of misconduct by Awan relating to his IT duties.<\/p>\n

Fox News\u2019 James Rosen and Alex Pappas contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n

Article source: http:\/\/feeds.foxnews.com\/~r\/foxnews\/politics\/~3\/oX1c2RtY21k\/imran-awan-case-lawmaker-calls-massive-data-transfers-from-wasserman-schultz-aide-substantial-security-threat.html<\/a>\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Wasserman Schultz staffer indicted on 4 counts Garrett Tenney has the story A Republican lawmaker on Tuesday described the \u201cmassive\u201d data transfers on government servers by a former IT aide to Democratic Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz as \u201ca substantial security threat.\u201d \u201cThese facts, standing alone, indicate a substantial security threat,\u201d Pennsylvania Republican Rep. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[84],"class_list":["post-95299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-political","tag-political"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95299\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}