in Judicial nominees, Judiciary
Frontpage has proclaimed Tanya S. Chutkan number one in their series on the ten worst judges in America. An Obama pick for the DC District Court, Chutkan goes easy on Islamic terrorists and violent criminals but cracks down hard on the January 6 defendants. Her handling of the Imran Awan case failed to get the attention it deserved.
Of all the IT people in all the IT firms in all the world, House Democrats thought Awan was best man for the job. Sometimes working from his native Pakistan, Awan and his family team accessed the computers of some 40 Democrats, including those on the intelligence and foreign affairs committees. Without their consent, Awan and his team stashed the Democrats’ data on a server controlled by Xavier Becerra, chair of the House Democratic Caucus. Capitol Police sought a copy of the server but were handed a fake.
In February, 2017, Awan and his team got booted off the House computer network, but Becerra had already fled to California where Gov. Jerry Brown made him state attorney general. In July of 2017, Awan attempted to flee the country but the authorities busted him for bank fraud. For Andrew McCarthy, who prosecuted “Blind Sheik” Omar Abdel-Rahman, “this appears to be a real conspiracy, aimed at undermining American national security.” Some in Congress agreed but the IT man had his defenders.
Debbie Wasserman Schultz charged that Awan was “put under scrutiny because of his religious faith and that “the right-wing media circus fringe” was jumping to conclusions. Awan’s attorney Chris Gowen, a former aide to Bill and Hillary Clinton, said Awan’s arrest for bank fraud was “clearly a right-wing media-driven prosecution by a United States Attorney’s Office that wants to prosecute people for working while Muslim.” The case landed with judge Tanya Chutkan, once a partner in the law firm of Boies, Schiller, & Flexner, which represented Huma Abedin in the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s email server.
Chutkan was a vocal opponent of President Trump’s travel ban and the judge shielded the national security aspect of the Awan case. Her frequent delays helped protect Xavier Becerra in his run to remain attorney general in California. In August of 2018, Chutkan sentenced Awan to time served, his one day in detention and 11 months of GPS monitoring and three months’ supervision. Awan was never formally charged with unauthorized possession of government material or anything of the sort. In due time, the IT man would get his reward.
“Congress Pays $850,000 to Muslim Aides Targeted in Inquiry Stoked by Trump,” reads the November 25, 2020 New York Times headline. According to the story, the previously unreported settlement is one of the largest to resolve discrimination or harassment claims, in this case by people who “lost their jobs and endured harassment in part because of their Muslim faith and South Asian origins.” For the other “part” see Obstruction of Justice: How the Deep State Risked National Security to Protect the Democrats, by Luke Rosiak. So far no book from Awan, who made his case with the Daily Beast in early 2022. Politics reporter Will Sommer uses “conspiracy theory” five times and Awan explained:
If I was a white guy, with all due respect, nothing would have happened.
They destroyed my life and then [on Jan. 6] they attack the United States of America. This is just so sad.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2024/10/here-comes-the-worst-judge.php
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