Lewdog
Gold Member
Oh dear...another conspiracy down the drain ...
Plea Deal For Former Congressional IT Staffer Debunks Right-Wing Conspiracy Theories
A former IT specialist for congressional Democrats who has figured prominently in right-wing conspiracy theories pleaded guilty Tuesday to making false statements on a loan application. Nevertheless, federal prosecutors said they found no evidence that he stole government secrets, as many conservatives, including President Trump, have suggested.
Imran Awan — who worked for former chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and other Democratic lawmakers — was arrested a year ago at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C., and charged with bank fraud.
Since then, right-wing websites such as The Daily Caller and commentators on Fox News have pushed a narrative that Awan, a Pakistani immigrant, used his job as a cover for stealing government secrets. In tweets, Trump referred to him as "the Pakistani mystery man" and vaguely suggested that he was tied to the hacking of the DNC's email servers.
However, Awan's guilty plea on Tuesday was unrelated to his work as an IT consultant.
Awan's attorney, Christopher Gowen, said his client acknowledged that in December 2016, he had submitted an online loan application listing a property in his wife's name as her primary residence. It was instead a rental property.
Gowan said Awan's misrepresentation was "wrong" and aimed at speeding the loan approval so that he could send money to his ailing father in Pakistan.
As The Washington Post notes, "the agreement included an unusual passage that described the scope of the investigation and cleared Awan of a litany of conspiracy theories promulgated on Internet blogs, picked up by right-leaning news sites and fanned by Trump on Twitter."
What I find interesting is that he was arrested in the process of boarding an overseas flight. He had been forced to wear an ankle monitor leading up to the plea deal. Now while awaiting sentencing, he isn't wearing one. How did they determine he's no longer a flight risk.
They probably just had him surrender his passport. He isn't going anywhere without that.