IT Aide in House Network Scandal Allegedly Abused Three Women

IT Aide in House Network Scandal Allegedly Abused Three Women

Virginia police reports show that three Muslim women have told authorities that Imran Awan, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s former IT aide in the middle of the House network scandal, allegedly abused them. The Daily Caller reported:

Officers found one of the women bloodied and she told them she “just wanted to leave,” while the second said she felt like a “slave,” according to Fairfax County Police reports obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation Investigative Group. A third woman claimed she was being kept “in captivity.”

The third woman is Awan’s stepmother, Samina Gilani, who said in court documents that Awan invoked his authority as a congressional employee to intimidate immigrant women, in part by telling them he had the power to have people kidnapped.

Awan is married to Hina Alvi, another aide in the scandal, and they have two children. The Daily Caller stated, though, that the two women were in relationships with Awan. They resided in two apartments, both paid for by Awan. The Daily Caller continued:

A crying Salam Chaudry called police in December 2015 to the Manitoba Apartment complex for a “domestic dispute,” according to a Fairfax County police report.

The investigating officer wrote that “Imran Awan was not supposed to live there and [Chaudry] wanted him to leave … It appeared that the two people were in a romantic relationship. Ms. Salam had a [redacted] that she said happened when she was doing dishes. Ms. Salam said she just wanted to leave and go to a shelter as she has no money. Ms. Salam has two children that were both at the residence both under the age of 8.”

The officer wrote that he “asked Ms. Salam why she was crying and calling police. Ms. Salam insisted nothing happened but that she wanted to leave. I went and spoke to Mr. Awan who quickly advised that he wanted to speak with a lawyer.”

“I asked him about the small amount of dried blood that appeared to be on his left hand,” the officer wrote. “He stated that it was from when his ‘roommate’ was getting the phone from him … After he left, I stayed and spoke with Ms. Salam about getting a protective order.”

Samara Siddique told authorities in a July 18, 2016 police report that “her boyfriend treat her bad and keep her there like a slave … [she] wants him out of her life. Ms. Siddique wanted info on how to obtain a restraining order against him.” The July 18 incident was the third time in less than a year police had responded to altercations between Siddique and Awan, once finding “small cut[s] on stomach and arm.”

In previous reports, the stepmother accused Awan and his brothers Abid and Jamal, also suspects in the probe, of keeping her away from her dying husband and kept her in a “sort of illegal captivity” from October 2016 to February 2017 as a way to retrieve his life insurance. They allegedly “threatened her in an effort to get money that their father had stashed in Pakistan.”

She “has filed a separate police complaint alleging insurance fraud.”

Gilani told The Daily Caller that Imran often “’boasted he had many contacts in USA and Pakistan also. He also said that if [I called even] the whole United States police on them,’ he would not face consequences, Gilani told TheDCNF. ‘Imran Awan threatened that he is very powerful’ and would use that power to have people kidnapped in Pakistan, she said in court documents.”

The police reports showed other accusations from Gilani:

She continued: “Imran Awan did admit to me that my phone is tapped and there are devices installed in my house to listen my all conversations … Imran Awan introduces himself as someone from US Congress or someone from federal agencies … Imran Awan manages to have police mobile based on his position in US congress or Federal Agencies to escort him during his visit to Pakistan.”

Gilani claimed Siddique is Awan’s second wife by Pakistani law, but that he had taken her copy of the marriage license away from her in order to render her helpless. Polygamy is illegal in the U.S.

In August, a grand jury indicted Awan and his wife Alvi on four counts after authorities arrested him at Dulles Airport in late July. From Fox News:

Awan and other IT aides for House Democrats have been on investigators’ 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 Schultz had kept him on until his arrest in July.

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.

In February, reports surfaced that four House employees face an investigation for breaching House IT systems and stealing equipment.Media named Hina, Abid, Imran, and Jamal in reports the following days. Lawmakers fired the four when the suspicions arose and barred the brothers “from computer networks at the House of Representatives.”

The House members included three congressmen on the intelligence panel and three on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. The officials suspect the four of “accessing members’ computer networks without their knowledge and stealing equipment from Congress.”

Recent reports have shown that authorities banned Awan from the House Network due to a secret server and that he still has an active email account connected to Democratic Rep. André Carson’s office.

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