Donna Brazile Dedicates Book To "Patriot" Seth Rich

After a leaked excerpt from her new book “Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns That Put Donald Trump in the White House” revealed that Donna Brazile feared for her life after the murder of former DNC employee Seth Rich, Axios has reported that Brazile provides more grist for what her former political allies have dismissed as “right wing conspiracy theories” in the book’s introduction.

Nestled among the usual platitudes about thanking friends and family, Brazile dedicates her book to Rich’s memory, describing him as a close colleague and “patriot”.

Rich was murdered in July 2016, two weeks before Wikileaks released a trove of emails stolen from the DNC’s servers that, among other embarrassing details, suggested that the DNC was engaged in widespread rigging of the 2016 Democratic primary to favor “front-runner” Hillary Clinton.

“In loving memory of my father, Lionel Brazile Sr.; my beloved sister, Sheila Brazioutlanle; my fearless uncles Nat, Floyd, and Douglas; Harlem’s finest, my aunt Lucille; my friend and mentor, David Kaufmann; my DNC colleague and patriot, Seth Rich; and my beloved Pomeranian, Chip Joshua Marvin Brazile (Booty Wipes). I miss y’all."

Rich, 27, a former data analyst at the DNC, was fatally shot while walking home late at night in Washington, D.C. The police believe the shooting was a robbery gone wrong. But Brazile says in her book that she was “haunted” by Rich’s death because she feared shadowy elements associated with the Clinton campaign may have played a role in his death as retribution for leaking the emails.

As Newsweek points out, media reports had characterized Rich as a low-level staffer, and his parents wrote in an opinion piece for The Washington Post in May claiming the idea that their son leaked the emails to Wikileaks was ridiculous because his position didn’t grant him access to sensitive data.

Brazile mentioned Rich during a Sunday appearance on ABC News’s This Week with George Stephanopouloson Sunday. She told the host about her critics: “They don’t know what it was like to be over the DNC during this hacking. They don’t know what it’s like to bury a child. I did: Seth Rich."

During the interview, Brazile softened her claims that the DNC rigged the primary (though, tellingly, party leaders have said they will reexamine the role of “joint-fundraising agreements” which Brazile alleged helped the Clinton campaign assert financial dominance over the DNC). She also said that her critics in the party can “go to hell."

"I"m not on the payroll, George. I care about my country. I care about our democracy," Brazile said. "And I say go to hell, because why am I supposed to be the only person that is unable to tell my story?"

Through spokesman Brad Bauman, the Rich family said in a statement, “Since Seth was murdered, Donna Brazile has been a great friend to the Rich family and has been extremely supportive of the family’s efforts to find Seth’s killers."

Of course, Democrats have lined up to rebut Brazile’s claims. More than 100 former Clinton campaign aids signed an open letter accusing Brazile of falling for “Russia-fueled propaganda” in what appears to be a feeble attempt to discredit her.

Already, a trove of bombshell allegations included in the book have been widely reported thanks to leaked excerpts, and a teaser chapter that Brazile published as an essay in Politico. For example, Brazile revealed that she considered replacing Clinton and running mate Tim Kaine with Joe Biden and Corey Booker after Clinton fainted at the 9/11 memorial. She also levied accusations of sexism and racism at former Clinton staffers, and - most shockingly of all - revealed that the Clinton campaign took advantage of Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s absentee leadership of the party to make the DNC financially dependent on Clinton.

Rep. Franks Predicts Awans Will Get Immunity For "Significant, Disturbing Story" About Wasserman Schultz

Last week the Washington Examiner reported that Hina Alvi, the wife of Debbie Wasserman Schultz"s now-infamous former IT staffer Imran Awan, had struck a deal with federal prosecutors to return to the U.S. where she currently faces charges of conspiracy and bank fraud.  The deal with prosecutors mandates a return to the U.S. during the "last week of September 2017" and is structured so that she will not be arrested in front of her children. 

Now, if you"re the cynical type, then it might have struck you as somewhat odd that Alvi would agree to return from Pakistan, the place to which she successfully fled specifically to avoid the charges she now seems to be embracing.

But, at least according to Congressman Trent Franks (R-AZ) who appeared on Fox News recently, there may be more to Alvi"s return than meets the eye as he predicts that the Awans could be working on a broader immunity deal with prosecutors in return for a "significant" and "pretty disturbing" story about Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

“I don’t want to talk out of school here but I think you"re going to see some revelations that are going to be pretty profound.  The fact that this wife is coming back from Pakistan and is willing to face charges, as it were, I think there is a good chance she is going to reach some type of immunity to tell a larger story here that is going to be pretty disturbing to the American people.”

"I would just predict that this is going to be a very significant story and people should fasten their seat belts on this one."

Of course, this follows speculation that surfaced last week suggesting that even if the Awans were originally acting to protect/extort Debbie Wasserman Schultz, that may have all changed on April 6, 2017 when Imran seemingly led U.S. Capitol Police directly to her laptop.  Per The Daily Caller:

A laptop that Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz has frantically fought to keep prosecutors from examining may have been planted for police to find by her since-indicted staffer, Imran Awan, along with a letter to the U.S. Attorney.

U.S. Capitol Police found the laptop after midnight April 6, 2017, in a tiny room that formerly served as a phone booth in the Rayburn House Office Building, according to a Capitol Police report reviewed by The Daily Caller News Foundation’s Investigative Group. Alongside the laptop were a Pakistani ID card, copies of Awan’s driver’s license and congressional ID badge, and letters to the U.S. attorney. Police also found notes in a composition notebook marked “attorney-client privilege.”

The laptop had the username “RepDWS,” even though the Florida Democrat and former Democratic National Committee chairman previously said it was Awan’s computer and that she had never even seen it.

The laptop was found on the second floor of the Rayburn building — a place Awan would have had no reason to go because Wasserman Schultz’s office is in the Longworth building and the other members who employed him had fired him.

DWS"s story on the now-infamous laptop has "evolved" over the months...originally it was apparently her laptop back when she decided to threaten the U.S. Capitol Police Chief but later, after he stood his ground, DWS backtracked saying she had never seen the laptop and it never belonged to her.

Wasserman Schultz used a televised May 18, 2017 congressional hearing on the Capitol Police budget to threaten “consequences” if Chief Matthew Verderosa did not give her the laptop. “If a member loses equipment,” it should be given back, she said.

Verderosa told her the laptop couldn’t be returned because it was tied to a criminal suspect. Wasserman Schultz reiterated that, while Awan was a suspect, the computer should be returned because it is “a member’s … if the member is not under investigation.”

She changed her story two months later, claiming it was Awan’s laptop — bought with taxpayer funds from her office — and she had never seen it. She said she only sought to protect Awan’s rights. “This was not my laptop,” she said August 3. “I have never seen that laptop. I don’t know what’s on the laptop.”

For those who missed DWS threatening the cops for a laptop that apparently didn"t even belong to her...it"s good entertainment.

So what say you...big nothing burger or are the walls closing in on DWS?

Marine Who Found Smashed Awan Equipment Blasts Wasserman Schultz Over ‘Islamophobia’ Claim

 

Content originally published at iBankCoin.com

The U.S. Marine who discovered smashed hard drives and other electronics in the garage of a rented home owned by indicted DNC IT staffer Imran Awan is outraged over claims of ‘Islamophobia’ from Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

Andre Taggart turned the damaged equipment over to the FBI, which is investigating the former Wasserman Schultz employee for a variety of suspected crimes, including procurement fraud, violations of the congressional IT network, and using an off-site server to divert data.

When former DNC chairman Schultz claimed that U.S. Capitol Police are only investigating a ‘persecuted’ Awan due to Islamophobia, Taggart - a Democrat, called BS and decided to speak up.

Via the Daily Caller:

Taggart told The Daily Caller News Foundation’s Investigative Group Wednesday that “it was amazing” that Wasserman Schultz, a Florida Democrat, describes Imran as a victim of religious discrimination by law enforcement. Taggart rented the Northern Virginia home of Awan, who had frantically moved out after learning authorities were onto him.

“It pisses me off,” said Taggart, a black Marine who says he votes Democrat. He believes Wasserman Schultz is crying wolf and devaluing the meaning of genuine discrimination, while also exposing herself and the nation to risks.

The day after the Daily Caller reported that Taggart had found and turned over the damaged equipment to the FBI in July, Imran attempted to flee the country, only to be arrested by the FBI at Dulles International Airport. The Awans had transferred and smuggled nearly $300,000 out of the U.S. before Imran’s arrest.

Taggart’s identity was originally withheld when the Daily Caller broke the story about the smashed hard drives in July, however the Democrat marine said he made the decision to come forward because he is concerned that ‘fellow Democrats are making a grave mistake by ignoring a scandal with serious criminal and national security implications,’ reports TheDCNF.

“I’m absolutely disgusted with everything going on in the country right now, mostly because of right-wing conservatives, but with respect to this situation, political affiliation is irrelevant,” said Taggart.

In addition to the four counts of fraud in relation to a Home Equity Line of Credit Imran Awan and his wife fraudulently applied for and subsequently sent to Pakistan, the Awans are suspected of a variety of other offenses – up to and including sending classified information to foreign enemies of the United States.

“Him, his wife, his brother, all working down there — there’s no way they could do this without help. If we can drag Trump and his wingnuts through the mud for the Russia influence that they are having, then it’s only fair that we also expose this s–t,” said Taggart.

Lawsuit!?

When Imran Awan discovered that Taggart was holding onto the damaged equipment from his rented garage, he threatened to sue to get it back. Awan also listed the house for sale right after signing a multi-year lease.

“They took advantage of us,” said Taggart.

Awan relative Syed Ahmed told The Daily Mail “for the sake of money they would have done anything… [Imran] might have been selling this information.”

Both Judge Napolitano and Lt. Colonel Tony Shaffer have said that their intel sources believe the Awans were spying on congress and selling information:

 

To follow the latest on the Awan saga, follow Luke Rosiak at the Daily Caller and investigator George Webb.

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Wasserman Schultz IT Staffer Indicted By Grand Jury On 4 Counts

The walls may be closing in on Debbie Wasserman Schultz after her former IT aide, the one who was arrested by the FBI at Dulles airport last month while trying to flee the country to Pakistan via Qatar, has officially been indicted by a grand jury on four counts including bank fraud and making false statements.

As Fox News points out, the charges include Awan"s wife Hina Alvi and are tied to allegations that the pair conspired to make false statements on applications for home equity lines of credit and then sent the proceeds of those loans to individuals in Pakistan.

Imran Awan, a former IT aide for Democratic Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, was indicted Thursday on four counts including bank fraud and making false statements.

The grand jury decision in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia comes roughly a month after Awan was arrested at Dulles airport in Virginia trying to board a plane to Pakistan, where his family is from.

The indictment also includes his wife Hina Alvi.

The indictment itself, which merely represents formal charges and is not a finding of guilt, 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 – and then sending the proceeds to individuals in Pakistan.

So why is the real estate angle important?  As we noted previously, title companies, unlike individuals, can wire large sums of money to international bank accounts without arousing the suspicions of federal investigators.

Title companies can wire large sums abroad without attracting the suspicion Imran did at the bank, and with Hina — the nominal sole owner of each of the houses — residing in that country, it would be natural to send the proceeds to her.

In addition to the three houses sold or slated to be sold since June 20, Imran’s lawyer, Chris Gowen, told The New York Times that the $283,000 wire in January was preceded by other similar transfers to Pakistan. “Gowen said the transfer represented the latest payment by his client for a piece of property he was buying in the country,” The Times reported.

Gowen would not tell TheDCNF whether the proceeds of the $360,000 June 20 home sale were wired to Pakistan, nor where the income from the two upcoming sales would go. The office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia declined to comment on whether it would block the disbursements.

The value of the known homes that have been sold since November or are currently being sold is $1.8 million. There is also the $283,000 January wire transfer from the Congressional bank, in addition to previous wires of unknown amounts that Imran’s lawyer acknowledged.

Since Imran’s lawyer said the January wire of nearly $300,000 was the latest in a series of wires, the transfers may have been about moving money from the $4 million in House payments or other sources.

As background, Imran was first employed in 2004 by former Democrat Rep. Robert Wexler (FL) as an “information technology director”, before he began working in Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s office in 2005.

The family was paid extremely well, with Imran Awan being paid nearly $2 million working as an IT support staffer for House Democrats since 2004. Abid Awan and his wife, Hina Alvi, were each paid more than $1 million working for House Democrats. In total, since 2003, the family has collected nearly $5 million.

In total, Imran"s firm was employed by 31 Democrats in Congress, some of whom held extremely sensitive positions on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Meanwhile, as we noted before, it is still unclear whether the bank fraud charges are just a placeholder for other charges that are yet to come. 

While details are scarce, media reports have alleged that Awan and his brothers potentially ran a procurement scheme in which they bought equipment, then overcharged various House members that employed their IT firm.  Meanwhile, some congressional technology aides have alleged that the Awan’s were blackmailing representatives based on the contents of their emails and files, due to the fact that these representatives have displayed unwavering and intense loyalty towards the former aides.

Of course, one of the most intriguing parts of the Awan narrative has continued to be why former DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz decided to keep him on her taxpayer-funded payroll right up until his arrest and whether that decision had anything to do with the whole DNC / Hillary email scandals that erupted last summer.

Perhaps we are finally getting closer to an answer...

Rep. DeSantis Calls for an Investigation into Wasserman Schultz's Ties to Awan

Content originally published at iBankCoin.com

Do you recall when Debbie Wasserman Schultz threatened the US Capitol Police chief for seizing a computer from her IT personnel, who was Imran Awan?

Let"s refresh your memory.

It never seemed right, the manner in which she targeted him with venomous animus. It was not the cadence, or computation, of an innocent person.

Fast forward to today and we have a full blown scandal on our hands, with charges that her IT personnel, Awan, had access to the emails of every single member of Congress -- and sold that information to person"s unknown.

Rep DeSantis joined The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT) in calling for an investigation into Wasserman Schultz, who employed Awan during and time as DNC chair -- dating back to 2005.

Source: Politico

Awan and his relatives worked as shared employees for more than two dozen House Democrats in the past several years. After the Capitol Hill investigation came to light in early February, most lawmakers fired the other staffers in question.
 
But Wasserman Schultz retained Awan, even though he has been barred from accessing the House IT network since February. FACT maintains there’s no way Awan could have performed IT duties for Wasserman Schultz over the past six months, despite staying on the Florida Democrat’s payroll.
 
“House staff are compensated with taxpayer funds, and members are directly responsible for ensuring their staff are only paid for official public work, work that has actually [been] performed and at a rate commensurate with the work performed,” Matthew Whitaker, FACT executive director, wrote in a letter to the OCE.
 
“It was, therefore, contrary to the House ethics rule for Wasserman Schultz to continue to pay Awan with taxpayer funds even after he was barred from the House computer system and could not perform his duties, and was also under criminal investigation.”

 
Awan was arrested by the FBI last week attempting to leave the country, after wiring $300,000 to his home country of Pakistan. Previous to attempting flight, his wife left the country and he had been frantically liquidating real estate holdings.
 
Here"s Rep. DeSantis discussing the issue with Tucker Carlson, calling for an investigation.

"It"s extremely odd. We knew in February about the cash. We knew about the smashed hard drives. What"s the explanation for this behavior?"

Fox Airs Allegations That Awans Aided Wasserman-Schultz With Voice Altered Phone Calls

By Elizabeth Vos of Disobedient Media

Lt. Colonel Tony Schaffer alleged on Fox News that the Awan brothers may have aided Debbie Wasserman-Schultz in making bizarre, voice modulated phone calls to the offices of attorneys currently pursuing a litigating a class action lawsuit against Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and the DNC. If substantiated, the claims may have significance for the DNC fraud lawsuit proceedings, and add to the growing controversy surrounding the recent arrest of Imran Awan on bank fraud charges.

Jared Beck, and attorney litigating the DNC Fraud Lawsuit noted on Twitter:

Disobedient Media‘s previous coverage of the DNC fraud lawsuit discussed ominous phone calls received by the Becks’ offices. The individual called the Becks using a voice modulator with a caller ID corresponding to the Aventura offices of Debbie Wasserman Schultz. The Becks referral to the ominous phone calls  to the D.C. Capital police is potentially extremely significant in terms of both the DNC fraud lawsuit and the degree to which Imran Awan may have engaged in potentially illegal activity while serving in his role as an IT staffer. This came after a string of concerning events surround the suit which eventually resulted in the Becks unsuccessfully seeking legal protection for themselves and others involved in the suit. The the former DNC chairwoman’s representatives denied the call had been made by Schultz or an associated party.

Lt. Colonel Tony Shaffer appeared on Fox New’s Tucker Carlson where he made allegations that Imran Awan had helped Schultz make the disturbing phone call to the Beck’s legal offices. Schaffer also discussed concerns regarding sensitive information that the Awans were privy to during their employment by the DNC. In discussing the Becks, Schaffer commented that Schultz had employed the brothers to do “hideous things behind the scenes… they helped her make voice change calls…” Schaffer added that the sensitive information the Awans had access to were stored in a third database, which he said is now being called a “breach.”

If it is confirmed that the Awans helped Schultz contact the law offices of the Becks, this could have significant implications for the DNC Fraud lawsuit. Unsolicited contact from Schultz to the Becks would be highly improper. Such phone calls were one in a string of apparently threatening conduct by Schultz and her associated. The former DNC chair was reported to have threatened the U.S. Capital chief of police with “consequences” in a heated exchange after he refused to surrender a laptop seized from Imran Awan.

Disobedient Media previously discussed concerns that the Awans may have leaked sensitive data related to their service for Schultz and the DNC. Schaffer alleged that a “foreign intelligence service” may have been the recipient of the leaked information, referring specifically to the Muslim Brotherhood, which he speculated was what had prompted FBI involvement in the case beyond the initial wire fraud charges.

Arrested DNC Staffer Awan Retains Long-Time Clinton Associate For Legal Help

After getting arrested Monday night at Dulles Airport in Northern Virginia while attempting to flee the country on a flight to Qatar, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz" IT staffer, according to Conservative Review, has decided to hire a lawyer with longstanding connections to the Clinton family for legal help. 

Chris Gowen, a founding partner at Gowen, Rhoades, Winograd and Silva, apparently did a little bit of everything for the Clintons over the course of multiple years including working in the Clinton White House, helping President Bill Clinton write his book, "My Life", and serving on Hillary"s 2008 presidential campaign.  Per Gowen"s bio:

Mr. Gowen left the Public Defender’s office to work for former President William Jefferson Clinton and then-Senator Hillary Clinton. Chris was a fact checker for President Clinton’s memoir, My Life. He also served as a traveling aid for President Clinton’s national and international trips. Chris finished his tenure with the Clintons by directing the advance operations for then-Senator Hillary Clinton during her 2008 presidential campaign.

Another biography, published on the American University website, says Gowen worked with several other controversial Clinton projects, including The Clinton Global Initiative, The Clinton Foundation, and The Clinton Health Access Initiative.

Shortly after Awan’s arrest, Gowen immediately jumped into the fray and hit the ground running with allegations that Awan was a victim of Islamophobia. He labeled Awan’s arrest as part of “a right-wing media-driven prosecution by a United States Attorney’s Office that wants to prosecute people for working while Muslim"...it"s almost as if the words are coming straight from Hillary"s mouth.

As we noted last night, Imran Awan has been charged with bank fraud but it is unclear whether that charge is just a placeholder for other charges that are yet to come.  While details are scarce, media reports have alleged that Awan and his brothers potentially ran a procurement scheme in which they bought equipment, then overcharged various House members that employed their IT firm.  Meanwhile, some congressional technology aides have alleged that the Awan’s were blackmailing representatives based on the contents of their emails and files, due to the fact that these representatives have displayed unwavering and intense loyalty towards the former aides.

As background, Imran was first employed in 2004 by former Democrat Rep. Robert Wexler (FL) as an “information technology director”, before he began working in Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s office in 2005.

The family was paid extremely well, with Imran Awan being paid nearly $2 million working as an IT support staffer for House Democrats since 2004. Abid Awan and his wife, Hina Alvi, were each paid more than $1 million working for House Democrats. In total, since 2003, the family has collected nearly $5 million.

In total, Imran"s firm was employed by 31 Democrats in Congress, some of whom held extremely sensitive positions on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Some of the #Democrats who had Pakistani IT workers (currently under investigation) on their payroll. #AwanBrothers https://t.co/XvrJ6H1iW9 pic.twitter.com/gVjNkfqWH3

— Nick Short ???????? (@PoliticalShort) May 22, 2017

Of course, one of the most intriguing parts of the Awan narrative is precisely why former DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (DWS) decided to keep him on her taxpayer-funded payroll right up until his arrest yesterday and whether that decision had anything to do with the whole DNC / Hillary email scandals that erupted last summer.

Along those lines, RNC Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel posed the following questions to DWS earlier this morning...

Debbie Wasserman Shultz needs to answer mounting questions about her staffer’s questionable and illegal actions… pic.twitter.com/2SRZIGiBAa

— GOP (@GOP) July 26, 2017

...and appeared on Fox Business to discuss DWS" curious decisions with regards to Awan (forward to the 4:00 minute mark in the video below for the relevant discussion).

“[Wasserman Schultz] kept him on her staff. He was a taxpayer-funded government employee until yesterday when she finally fired him.  We need to figure out why he’s under criminal investigation and we’re not hearing that across the country right now."

"We have to get to the bottom of this, and Debbie Wasserman Schultz has obstructed at every level on something that affects potentially our national security.  We are not hearing the Democrats talk about it at all. Where’s Debbie Wasserman Schultz?”

A preliminary hearing for Mr. Awan is scheduled for August 21.

Caught On Tape: Wasserman Schultz Threatens Police Chief For Investigating Her IT Staff's Crimes

Something stinks here.

February we first reported on the Anwan brothers, the (Not-Russian) IT Staff Who Allegedly Hacked Congress" Computer Systems.

Imran Awan seen below with Bill Clinton

The brothers were barred from computer networks at the House of Representatives Thursday, The Daily Caller News Foundation Investigative Group has learned.

Three members of the intelligence panel and five members of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs were among the dozens of members who employed the suspects on a shared basis. The two committees deal with many of the nation’s most sensitive issues, information and documents, including those related to the war on terrorism.

The brothers are suspected of serious violations, including accessing members’ computer networks without their knowledge and stealing equipment from Congress.

The three men are “shared employees,” meaning they are hired by multiple offices, which split their salaries and use them as needed for IT services.

Then in March, we noted that House Democrats decided to delay the firing (until today) because their Muslim background, some with ties to Pakistan, could make them easy targets for false charges.

“I wanted to be sure individuals are not being singled out because of their nationalities or their religion. We want to make sure everybody is entitled to due process,” Meeks said.

“They had provided great service for me. And there were certain times in which they had permission by me, if it was Hina or someone else, to access some of my data.”

Fudge told Politico on Tuesday she would employ Imran Awan until he received “due process.”

“He needs to have a hearing. Due process is very simple. You don’t fire someone until you talk to them,” Fudge said.

On Wednesday, Lauren Williams, a spokeswoman for Fudge, wouldn’t provide details about Imran Awan’s firing but did confirm he was still employed in Fudge’s office as of Tuesday afternoon.

The bottom line is simple - these House Democrats decided it was better to be at risk of hacking and extortion than to be accused of racism.

Then yesterday we reported that Congressional Aides Fear Suspects In IT Breach Are Blackmailing Members With Their Own Data...

The baffled aides wonder if the suspects are blackmailing representatives based on the contents of their emails and files, to which they had full access.

“I don’t know what they have, but they have something on someone. It’s been months at this point” with no arrests, said Pat Sowers, who has managed IT for several House offices for 12 years. “Something is rotten in Denmark.”

A manager at a tech-services company that works with Democratic House offices said he approached congressional offices, offering their services at one-fourth the price of Awan and his Pakistani brothers, but the members declined. At the time, he couldn’t understand why his offers were rejected but now he suspects the Awans exerted some type of leverage over members.

“There’s no question about it: If I was accused of a tenth of what these guys are accused of, they’d take me out in handcuffs that same day, and I’d never work again,” he said.

And today, The Daily Caller"s Luke Rosiak reports Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz threatened the chief of the U.S. Capitol Police with “consequences” for holding equipment that she says belongs to her in order to build a criminal case against a Pakistani staffer suspected of massive cybersecurity breaches involving funneling sensitive congressional data offsite.

The Florida lawmaker used her position on the committee that sets the police force’s budget to press its chief to relinquish the piece of evidence Thursday, in what could be considered using her authority to attempt to interfere with a criminal investigation.

The Capitol Police and outside agencies are pursuing Imran Awan, who has run technology for the Florida lawmaker since 2005 and was banned from the House network in February on suspicion of data breaches and theft.

“My understanding is the the Capitol Police is not able to confiscate Members’ equipment when the Member is not under investigation,” Wasserman Schultz said in the annual police budget hearing of the House Committee On Appropriations’ Legislative Branch Subcommittee.

“We can’t return the equipment,” Police Chief Matthew R. Verderosa told the Florida Democrat.

“I think you’re violating the rules when you conduct your business that way and you should expect that there will be consequences,” Wasserman Schultz said.

As one of eight members of the Committee on Appropriations’ Legislative Branch subcommittee, Wasserman Schultz is in charge of the budget of the police force that is investigating her staffer and how he managed to extract so much money and information from members.

In a highly unusual exchange, the Florida lawmaker uses a hearing on the Capitol Police’s annual budget to spend three minutes repeatedly trying to extract a promise from the chief that he will return a piece of evidence being used to build an active case.

“If a Member loses equipment and it is found by your staff and identified as that member’s equipment and the member is not associated with any case, it is supposed to be returned. Yes or no?” she said.

Police tell her it is important to “an ongoing investigation,” but presses for its return anyway.

The investigation is examining members’ data leaving the network and how Awan managed to get Members to place three relatives and a friend into largely no-show positions on their payrolls, billing $4 million since 2010.

The congresswoman characterizes the evidence as “belonging” to her and argues that therefore it cannot be seized unless Capitol Police tell her that she personally, as opposed to her staffer, is a target of the investigation.

When TheDCNF asked Wasserman Schultz Monday if it could inquire about her strong desire for the laptop, she said “No, you may not.” After TheDCNF asked why she wouldn’t want the Capitol Police to have any evidence they may need to find and punish any hackers of government information, she abruptly turned around in the middle of a stairwell and retreated back to the office from which she had come.

Her spokesman, David Dameron, then emerged to say “We just don’t have any comment.”

Though on the surface Wasserman Schultz would have been a victim of Awan’s scam, she has inexplicably protected him, circumventing the network ban by re-titling him as an “adviser” instead of technology administrator.

Politico described him and his wife, Hina Alvi, as having a “friendly personal relationship” with both Wasserman Schultz and Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York.

That baffled a Democratic IT staffer, who said

“I can’t imagine why she’d be that good of friends with a technology provider.”

“Usually if someone does bad stuff, an office is going to distance themselves” rather than incur political fallout for a mere staffer.

Wasserman Schultz resigned as Chairman of the Democratic National Committee in 2016 after Wikileaks published thousands of internal emails obtained by an as-yet unidentified hacker.

The last 30 seconds of the exchange can also be seen here...

As we said at the start - something stinks here!! But do not expect the mainstream media to report on it. One can"t help but wonder if anything related to Seth Rich is lurking on that laptop?

Mike Krieger Asks: Can Bernie Sanders Be Convinced To Launch A New Political Party?

Authored by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitizkrieg blog,

I am 100% in the camp that supports Bernie Sanders severing himself completely from the hopelessly captured and corrupt Democratic Party and launching an entirely new movement. I’ve spent a lot of time since the 2016 election writing about how worthless the Democratic Party is and why it will never fundamentally change. The sad truth when it comes to American politics at the moment is “we the people” have no political representation whatsoever. Both the Republican and Democratic parties are corporate and oligarch donor owned, and will never push forward the sort of sweeping change average Americans need in order to enjoy a higher quality of life.

This post isn’t meant as an endorsement of Sanders or all of his policies, but it’s an endorsement of creating something new so that the public can enter a new era in which the needs of the people are addressed. Truth be told, we’ve been fooled into thinking that we have two distinct political parties proposing vastly different policy solutions to help the public. The reality is we have two political parties proposing various solutions to help the donors. Nobody represents the people. We need to discard these parties and form new ones, and the sooner we do so, the better.

As I wrote in the post, In Defense of Populism:

Despite my refusal to self-identify, I am comfortable stating that I’m a firm supporter of populist movements and appreciate the instrumental role they’ve played historically in free societies. The reason I like this term is because it carries very little baggage. It doesn’t mean you adhere to a specific set of policies or solutions, but that you believe above all else that the concerns of average citizens matter and must be reflected in government policy.

Populism reaches its political potential once such concerns become so acute they translate into popular movements, which in turn influence the levers of power. Populism is not a bug, but is a key feature in any democratic society. It functions as a sort of pressure relief valve for free societies. Indeed, it allows for an adjustment and recalibration of the existing order at the exact point in the cycle when it is needed most. In our current corrupt, unethical and depraved oligarchy, populism is exactly what is needed to restore some balance to society.

Whether people identify as on the “right” or the “left” there’s general consensus (at least in U.S. populist movements) of the following: oligarchs must be reined in, rule of law must be restored, unnecessary military adventures overseas must be stopped, and lobbyist written phony “free trade” deals must be scrapped and reversed.

Trump was the first President in my lifetime to win the office on a populist wave. Unfortunately, his actual style of governing in practice looks a lot like authoritarian-corporatism, an ideology and mindset which I find nauseating and dangerous. As such, the best chance of an alternative populism in the near-term would come from a Bernie Sanders led party.

I seriously hope he takes the plunge, because as recent reports from a Florida lawsuit against the DNC demonstrate, the Democratic Party is beyond repair.

As the Observer reports:

On April 28 the transcript was released from the most recent hearing at a federal court in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on the lawsuit filed on behalf of Bernie Sanders supporters against the Democratic National Committee and former DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz for rigging the Democratic primaries for Hillary Clinton. Throughout the hearing, lawyers representing the DNC and Debbie Wasserman Schultz double down on arguments confirming the disdain the Democratic establishment has toward Bernie Sanders supporters and any entity challenging the party’s status quo.

Shortly into the hearing, DNC attorneys claim Article V, Section 4 of the DNC Charter—stipulating that the DNC chair and their staff must ensure neutrality in the Democratic presidential primaries—is “a discretionary rule that it didn’t need to adopt to begin with.” Based on this assumption, DNC attorneys assert that the court cannot interpret, claim, or rule on anything associated with whether the DNC remains neutral in their presidential primaries.

Later in the hearing, attorneys representing the DNC claim that the Democratic National Committee would be well within their rights to “go into back rooms like they used to and smoke cigars and pick the candidate that way.” By pushing the argument throughout the proceedings of this class action lawsuit, the Democratic National Committee is telling voters in a court of law that they see no enforceable obligation in having to run a fair and impartial primary election.

That’s your “Democratic” Party.

As a result of the obvious sham, there’s a new movement afoot to “Draft Bernie” into a new political party. Its founder is Nick Brana, and here’s a great interview of him  by Jordan Chariton.

 

Here’s my bottomline. If Sanders doesn’t do something like this and do it fast, the Democrats are going to nominate another corrupt loser in 2020, and Trump will win a second term no matter how unpopular he might be.