Politics

Chris Bedford Peels Back The Onion On Capitol Hill IT Scandal

(Screenshot/Fox Business)

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Nick Givas Media And Politics Reporter
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The Daily Caller News Foundation’s Editor-in-Chief Chris Bedford discussed the Capitol Hill IT scandal involving the Awan family Wednesday on Fox Business and said the corruption may go all the way to the top.

Bedford said the Awan brothers — who worked as IT aides for many Democratic members of Congress including Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz — have multiple lawsuits pending against them by members of their own family. He believes there is a pattern of nefarious behavior.

“They’re appearing in civil court today as you mentioned at 10:00 in the morning. One of the many sordid cases they’ve been kind of involved in here where they are in trouble with their stepmother who accused them of kidnapping her, of wiretapping,” Bedford said. “They have lawsuits out with many members of the family. Women who have been involved with Awan, his wife, his girlfriend have all accused him of different kinds of sordid activity — some of which involved police activity.”

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Bedford referenced an ethics complaint a group lodged against Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver who gave Awan access to his IT network while paying another person for the work.

“We also have some news coming out today, The Foundation for Accountability And Civic Trust is bringing an ethics complaint against Rep. Emanuel Cleaver potentially for paying people who weren’t members of his staff and giving Awan as well, access to his IT networks without paying him and these things could be pretty serious for Rep. Cleaver,” Bedford added.

The Foundation and Accountability and Civic Trust is claiming the payment scheme represents a ghost employee scheme that allowed Awan to defraud Congress.

“So far people have been slow-walking this and Democrats in Congress have refused to bring complaints. They’re the victims since members of Congress actually own the information inside of their offices, but what they don’t own is the money they used to pay their staff,” Bedford said. “If this goes onward then it will be referred to the ethics committee and they’re going to have to investigate whether or not [Cleaver] broke House law.”

“I think it’s slowly, slowly, slowly starting to roll,” he concluded. “Slowly people are starting to pick up and there’s just too much there, there to ignore it.”

Editor’s Note:

The Daily Caller, Inc., the Daily Caller News Foundation, and Luke Rosiak have settled a defamation lawsuit brought by Imran Awan, Abid Awan, Jamal Awan, Tina Alvi, and Rao Abbas (“the Plaintiffs”), in the D.C. Superior Court, Awan et al. v. The Daily Caller, Inc. et al., No. 2020 CA 000652 B (D.C. Super.) (“The Lawsuit”).
 
The Plaintiffs filed the Lawsuit in 2020, alleging that they were defamed by statements made by The Daily Caller entities and Mr. Rosiak, including statements in Obstruction of Justice, a 2019 book authored by Mr. Rosiak and published by Regnery Publishing, a business of Salem Media Group, Inc., about the Plaintiffs’ work for the U.S. House of Representatives. In response, The Daily Caller entities and Mr. Rosiak each denied liability and contested the Plaintiffs’ claims. 
 
None of the Defendants has admitted to any fault as part of this settlement. Nevertheless, The Daily Caller entities and Mr. Rosiak recognize that no charges have ever been filed against the Plaintiffs relating to their congressional IT work.

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