Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., should be investigated for continuing to employ a former House IT aide who was arrested on bank-fraud charges last Tuesday, a conservative anti-corruption watchdog group wrote in a complaint to the Office of Congressional Ethics Monday, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
"It appears that Rep. Wasserman Schultz permitted an employee to remain on the House payroll in violation of House Ethics Rules," Matthew Whitaker of the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust wrote in the letter. "After Awan was barred from accessing the House computer system, Wasserman Schultz continued to pay Awan with taxpayer funds for IT consulting – a position that he could not reasonably be able to perform."
Wasserman Schultz fired Imran Awan on Tuesday after his arrest, but said she saw no reason to terminate Awan until there was credible evidence to do so. A criminal complaint against Awan alleges he and his wife conspired to secure a fraudulent loan. The 37-year-old had been employed by the House of Representatives as an IT specialist since 2004. He started working on a contractual basis for more than a dozen Democratic lawmakers soon after.
Awan, 37, and four other IT staffers were accused of theft in February. They were employed by more than two dozen Democrats in Congress, but Wasserman Schultz was the only lawmaker who kept him on. Awan pleaded not guilty to the bank-fraud charges and was released into a high-intensity supervision program.