More legal delay in puzzling case of ex-House IT aide Imran Awan | Jamie Dupree - PBP

Over a year after a group of House Democrats cut ties with a number of part-time IT workers amid questions about illegal activity on Congressional data networks, few public answers have emerged from the government’s investigation of whether Imran Awan and his family members did anything criminal during their employment on Capitol Hill, as unrelated charges of bank fraud leveled against Awan and his wife continue to languish in a Washington, D.C. federal court.

Thursday was supposed to be the date of a status hearing in federal court on the case against Awan and his wife Hina Alvi, which centers on fraud involving a home equity loan. That status hearing was delayed from January 8, which had been rescheduled from November 30, after being delayed on November 20.

The next scheduled status conference for Awan and his wife – if it happens – is now set for May 4.

Court documents filed in recent months have given almost no clues about the case; in October, there was a reference by the feds to “voluminous discovery” in the Awan investigation, and a note about “an attorney-client privilege issue” raised by Awan.

Awan – who has been working as an Uber driver – is no longer being required to have a curfew or go through a federal drug testing program – but he still must wear a GPS monitoring device, and can’t go more than 150 miles away from his home.

The delays, the lack of action on what is supposedly just about bank fraud – and the lack of any additional charges from investigators about why Awan and his family members were fired from their jobs in the first place – have led to an almost endless stream of internet theories.

Among them: Awan and his family were stealing data and emails from Congress. Links to terrorism. Espionage involving Pakistan. Ties to hacking at the DNC. A weird car dealership angle. The theft of IT equipment from Capitol Hill. Do a few social media searches and you’re guaranteed to find you even more.

But, as of this point, the investigations by the U.S. Capitol Police and the FBI have produced nothing new in terms of charges to go along with the original criminal complaint in the case – dealing just with bank fraud.

“We do not comment on ongoing investigations,” a Capitol Police spokeswoman says in response to questions.

It was in February 2017 that a group of House Democrats suddenly cut ties with Awan, his wife, and several other relatives who were doing IT work on a part-time basis for the offices.

“An internal investigation determined that a number of House policies and procedures had been violated,” Rep. Gregg Harper (R-MS), the Chairman of the House Administration Committee said in a written statement – but no details were offered.

In fact, that’s been the only public statement issued by the panel, which is charged with overseeing daily operations in the House.

Last summer, with many of the same questions swirling about what was really going on in the case, Imran Awan was arrested on July 24 at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C., ready to fly to Pakistan to see his wife and family.

His wife, Hina Alvi, had left a few months earlier with the couple’s three young children – in what law enforcement felt was a rush – but she returned to Virginia in the fall, and agreed to face federal charges, along with her husband.

Lawyers for the couple – who are both U.S. citizens – say Awan and Alvi were “unjustly fired,” that they were never fleeing authorities in the U.S.

The Awans, along with other family relatives, had found computer work on Capitol Hill by working part-time for a series of different Democratic lawmaker offices in the U.S. House, including Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL), who at the time was the head of the Democratic National Committee.

For example, House spending records from 2016 show Imran Awan was a shared employee for thirteen different House members, earning in the third quarter of that year anywhere from as little as $300 from a pair of Democrats to $6,624.99 from another lawmaker.

Awan’s wife, Hina Alvi, worked for seven Democrats, plus the House Democratic Caucus, earning close to $44,000 in the third quarter of 2016.

Records also showed two relatives of Awan’s on the Congressional payroll: Abid Awan worked for eight different House Democrats, while Jamal Awan worked for eight others – all as ‘shared’ employees.

None of the other Awan family relatives currently face any charges related to their work, even though all of them were basically ‘fired’ back in 2017 for some kind of procedural violations.

What those details are – and whether they were criminal in nature – remain a mystery.