Former DNC IT man sees “xenophobic conspiracies” at work.

“The former House information technology staffer whose proximity to Democratic Party leadership made him a linchpin of conspiracy theories pushed by Republicans up to the President is suing a conservative news outlet and its reporter for defamation,” CNN reported on January 29.

The former staffer is Imran Awan, who worked for “Democratic House members, including Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who served as the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee through much of the run-up to the 2016 election.” Awan is not quoted in the story but his attorney Deepak Gupta told CNN, “When our media discourse veers away from facts and towards xenophobic conspiracies, real people are going to get caught in the crosshairs. That's what happened here.” On the other hand, even casual observers might wonder if there was more to the story.

As Ryan Saavedra of the Daily Wire reported in December, the Department of Justice said it could not release records on Imran Awan due to “technical difficulties,” but later admitted in court documents that it could not release the records “because there is a secret ongoing case related to the matter.” The DOJ also failed to produce Capitol Police records requested in a Judicial Watch lawsuit, on the grounds of “technical difficulties.”

Also in play was a “sealed criminal matter” and the government declined to reveal the information “pursuant to an order issued by the Honorable Tanya S. Chutkan.” She is the POTUS 44 appointee who postponed Awan’s case six times then cut him a sweetheart deal in 2018.

The Pakistani-born Awan came to the USA through the immigration lottery system. He earned an IT degree from Johns Hopkins but did not work for any of the six IT firms officially vetted for congressional offices. Even so, DNC boss Debbie Wasserman Schultz not only brought Awan aboard but hired his wife and other family members, though none had degrees in information technology.

Awan’s attorney, Christopher J. Gowen, was a former aide to Bill and Hillary Clinton. Gowen described Awan’s arrest as “clearly a right-wing media-driven prosecution by a United States Attorney’s Office that wants to prosecute people for working while Muslim.” There was a bit more to it, as Carl Horowitz of the National Legal and Policy Center noted last March in his review of Obstruction of Justice: How the Deep State Risked National Security to Protect the Democrats by Daily Caller reporter Luke Rosiak, now the target of Awan’s lawsuit.

The Awans appeared to be thieves, Horowitz wrote, “but it was likely they were something more.” One of the recovered items was a laptop bearing the initials of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and Awan, who did not qualify for a security clearance, knew the password to the iPad used by Schultz for Democratic National Committee business. Awan was fired by every House member except Wasserman Schultz, and Capitol Police failed to search the Awans’ homes or arrest Imran Awan.

As Horowitz recalled, Tanya Chutkan was more like a defense attorney than a judge. She denounced the “unbelievable onslaught of scurrilous media attacks” and “baseless accusations” that were lobbed at Awan “from the highest branches of government.” Chutkan even wished Awan “a good Eid,” and sentenced him to a weekly phone call with a probation officer.

Awan’s attorney Christopher Gowen, a veteran of the Clinton Foundation, told reporters the FBI’s investigation of the Awans was “probably the most thorough, exhaustive investigation in the history of this country.” When Luke Rosiak challenged him with facts, Gowen shot back “Totally false…You are a liar, a Trump pawn and a very bad person.”

As Carl Horowitz concluded, “fear of being called ‘racist,’ ‘bigoted’ or ‘Islamophobic’ emerges as the unspoken reason for the timidity gripping Washington.” The Deep State players and their media allies, “made clear that those who expose the Awans would pay a high price.”

As Ryan Saavedra recalls, after the DOJ closed the investigation into Awan, President Trump tweeted, “Our Justice Department must not let Awan & Debbie Wasserman Schultz off the hook. The Democrat I.T. scandal is a key to much of the corruption we see today. They want to make a ‘plea deal’ to hide what is on their Server. Where is Server? Really bad!”

The Democrats’ server was previously under the control of Rep. Xavier Becerra, once on Hillary Clinton’s short list as a running mate. Becerra is now California attorney general and a shrill voice in the anti-Trump chorus. Imran Awan was reportedly seeking a post in Silicon Valley, but has not disclosed his location.

The Pakistani-born IT man has now mounted a lawsuit against the Daily Caller and Regnery Publishers. His legal team will doubtless seek a judge like Tanya Chutkan, who will double as Awan’s defense attorney. Like Deepak Gupta, the establishment media will be warning about Islamophobia, xenophobia and such. Still, as Carl Horowitz notes, plenty to discover here.

“Consider the possibility that an extended Pakistani family used their employment as cybersecurity specialists to steal emails, documents and equipment from dozens of members of the House of Representatives and then transfer them to outside parties, including the government of Pakistan.” As President Trump says, we’ll have to wait and see what happens