FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.— U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz is once again at the vortex of controversy, this time over a suddenly fired staffer who was arrested while at an airport preparing to leave the country.

The latest imbroglio is unfolding exactly a year after the biggest crisis of Wasserman Schultz’s political career, the disclosure of massive volumes of internal Democratic National Committee emails, hacked from the party and published online by WikiLeaks. That controversy resulted in her resignation as chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee.

Wasserman Schultz has not been accused of any wrongdoing in the case involving the arrested staffer. She was one of several Democratic members of Congress who utilized Imran Awan as a shared employee working on info-tech in their offices.

Congressional offices employing Awan learned he was the subject of an investigation earlier this year, with some terminating him immediately and others suspending him and terminating him later. Wasserman Schultz didn’t fire him until Tuesday.

“After details of the investigation were reviewed with us, my office was provided no evidence to indicate that laws had been broken, which over time, raised troubling concerns about due process, fair treatment and potential ethnic and religious profiling. Upon learning of his arrest, he was terminated,” Wasserman Schultz said Wednesday via email.

Fox News reported the probe was examining how Awan may have billed the House for computers, iPads, monitors, keyboards and routers. The Awan case has been a major focus for months for The Daily Caller, which has published 20 articles on the subject since February.

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Intrigue and drama surrounding the case exploded this week.

Awan was arrested at Dulles International Airport on Monday as he prepared to head to Pakistan.

Awan, 37, of Lorton, Va., was arraigned Tuesday in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia on one count of bank fraud, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the capital said by email.

Awan pleaded not guilty and was released “pursuant to a high-intensity supervision program.” He has to receive a GPS monitor, abide by a curfew, stay within 50 miles of his home and turn over all his passports.

An affidavit from FBI Special Agent Brandon Merriman, filed with the criminal complaint, said there is probable cause to believe that Awan and his wife, Hina Alvi, also engaged in a scheme to defraud Congressional Federal Credit Union.

Merriman said the misrepresentations involved the claim that the property used to secure a home equity line of credit was a “principal residence,” when it was, in fact, a rental property. The credit union generally doesn’t provide home equity lines of credit when a rental property is used to secure the loan because of the high risk.

The affidavit also said Alvi and Awan had $283,000 wired to Pakistan, including $165,000 from the home equity line of credit.

Alvi left the country in March and has not returned, Merriman said. Although she has a ticket for a return flight in September, he “does not believe that Alvi has any intention to return to the United States.”


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