Month: March 2018

A Democratic congressman is facing an ethics complaint for paying an unqualified former McDonald’s employee to manage his data for three years and allegedly admitting to handing control of his servers to now-indicted Pakistani-American Imran Awan despite Awan not being on his staff.

A complaint submitted against Rep. Emanuel Cleaver on Wednesday asks the Congressional Ethics Office to investigate Cleaver’s response to a question about his IT aide Rao Abbas whose previous job field was fast food.

“Imran is the guy who worked in our office. I don’t know this other guy,” Cleaver responded on an audio recording.

Payroll records show that Imran Awan was not on the Missouri lawmaker’s payroll, and for the last three years, the only person authorized to manage his servers was Abbas.

“There is no logical or reasonable explanation for Cleaver to affirmatively identify Awan as his employee unless Awan was the individual actually providing IT services,” the complaint from the Foundation for Accountability & Civic Trust said. “Cleaver accepted IT services and incredibly would have given full access to his data and files to someone who was not on his staff.”

“Moreover, Cleaver used taxpayer dollars to pay over $60,000 to Abbas, who he did not know and the evidence indicates did not do work for him,” it said. “Ethics rules may have been blatantly violated.” It accuses Cleaver of paying a “ghost employee” and putting data at risk by violating House information security policy.

Like many Democrats, Cleaver is seemingly a big proponent of cybersecurity, tweeting on Monday an article about “Russian meddling” in the 2016 presidential election and saying “it is unconscionable that the Trump administration has spent $0 toward preventing election interference in 2018.”

But he has refused to discuss what the House Office of Inspector General claimed was “unauthorized access” by Awan and his family members. Server logs show Awan and his relatives logged into servers they should have had no reason to access and with unusually high frequency. The IG claims the family was moving files off the House network that appeared “sensitive,” and they continued to log in even after some members had fired them.

No one has paid more to the Awan family than Cleaver, according to House disbursement records. “Prior to 2013, Cleaver employed Imran Awan’s brother, Abid Awan; Abid Awan’s wife, Nataliia Sova; and Imran Awan’s wife, Hina Alvi,” the complaint says. “Then in 2013, Cleaver hired Imran Awan’s friend, Rao Abbas, who reportedly previously worked as a manager at McDonalds and did not have formal IT training.”

Abid and the Ukrainian-born Sova were actually running car dealerships. A third Awan brother, Jamal, began earning a congressional salary of $160,000 at the age of 20-years-old, leading to suspicions that the Awans were running a “ghost employee” scheme where members would sign off on paychecks for people who did not actually work, according to the complaint.

Bankruptcy records filed in 2012 suggest the Awan family owed Abbas money. That same year, Abbas began collecting a taxpayer check courtesy of congressional offices through relationships with the Awans. Abbas never followed through with a threatened lawsuit against the Awans.

The paychecks written to Imran were the highest for congressional staffers. Awan was making $165,000 and staffers are not allowed to make more than congressmen. The only way to increase his earnings would be to attribute payments for work he did to other people.

Abbas lived in the basement of a home owned by Imran’s wife. Cristal Perpignan, a tenant who lived in the upper floors until late 2014 — years after Abbas began appearing on the House payroll — said “Rao did appear to be home most days,” rather than at a job. Although Imran’s wife owned the home, she interacted with Imran as the landlord, and told her to make out her rent checks to Abbas, she said.

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“After Cleaver had been using taxpayer funds to pay Abbas for over three years, Cleaver was asked about his IT aide and reportedly stated, ‘I don’t even know (Abbas)’ and identified the actual individual who performed his IT work. Although unknown to Cleaver, apparently unqualified, and at home most days, Cleaver employed Rao Abbas as his IT Aide from 2013 to 2016 and paid him a total of $60,183,” the complaint says.

Former Democratic Rep. Corrine Brown of Florida began serving a five-year prison term this year following a scandal that included a ghost employee scheme The cousin of her chief of staff was added to the office’s payroll but didn’t actually work. After paychecks were direct-deposited to the cousin’s account, the chief of staff – who had access to the account — would then withdraw the funds for himself.

Cleaver spokeswoman Heather Frierson repeatedly declined to tell The Daily Caller News Foundation whether the office had ever seen Abbas.

Members are “prohibited from accepting services from non-employees,” the House Information Security Policy “forbids Members from allowing non-staffer to be administrators,” and “Members are prohibited from employing individuals who do not actually perform work,” the complaint says. “A Member is not only directly responsible for ensuring his or her staff are only paid for official public work, but also that that work has actually been performed.”

FACT filed a complaint in July against Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida for continuing to pay Imran after he was banned from the House network, saying an IT aide blocked from the internet could not legitimately provide the same value as he did before. In December, it named her the worst ethics violator in Congress, behind the unknown members tied to sexual harassment settlements.

The Office of Congressional Ethics hears ethics complaints and, if deemed credible, forwards them to the House Committee on Ethics. However, the top Democrat on the panel, Florida Rep. Ted Deutch, employed more of the Awan clan than anyone except Cleaver, and he has also refused to say whether he ever saw Abbas.

One of the other four Democrats on the panel is Rep. Yvette Clarke, whose office saw $120,000 in equipment disappear under Abid Awan’s watch and submitted paperwork to “write off” the discrepancy. She did not fire him until House officials told the office it was doing an audit months later.

A version of this article appeared on The Daily Caller News Foundation website.

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Rats — actual rodents — are infesting the newly renovated Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s headquarters, The Daily Caller News Foundation has learned.

Hundreds of the agency’s employees moved into their beautiful $124 million headquarters across the street from the White House in October as construction was still underway. Upon entering, they discovered rats also were making it their home, according to two sources who spoke to TheDCNF on the condition of anonymity.

The $124,000 price tag was double the original $55 million estimate and 25 percent over the $99 million estimate approved by Richard Cordray, the bureau’s first director. White House Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney has temporarily taken over the reins of the troubled bureau.

Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren established the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau when she was serving in the Department of the Treasury during former President Barack Obama’s administration. The bureau’s mandate is to protect consumers, but it seems to be running into problems protecting its employees.

“Right from the start there were reports of rats in the building,” one employee told TheDCNF in an interview. “There were rat sightings. One person had a rat in her trash can, and they couldn’t get it out. Rat feces were on the floor and on people’s desks. Rats are running across people’s feet when they’re sitting there trying to work,” he said.

“There was a woman who had a rat run across her feet when she was sitting at her desk. She started screaming,” he recalled.

A CFPB spokesman confirmed rats do indeed run throughout parts of the building. “The Bureau identified an issue with rodents appearing in some areas of the building, due in part to the ongoing construction in the basement and ground level areas,” he told TheDCNF in a statement.

Another source told TheDCNF rat traps can be found on all six floors of the building.

The building enjoyed a luxurious upgrade, a CFPB spokesman told TheDCNF during a recent tour of the headquarters. Cordray authorized the lavish renovation of the 1970s-era building, which the Office of Thrift Supervision originally operated, the spokesman said.

The building was converted from a “Class C” building — common for most federal buildings — to a “Class A” building, which is considered one of the most luxurious levels for a commercial office buildings, the spokesman confirmed to TheDCNF.

Rep. Jeb Hensarling, a Texas Republican and chairman of the House Financial Services Committee once compared the high-priced federal building to India’s Taj Mahal.

“Richard Cordray spent an obscene about of money on renovating the CFPB, and his lavish spending could not even prevent a rat infestation,” Rep. Sean Duffy, a Republican from Wisconsin, told TheDCNF. Duffy, an outspoken critic of the CFPB, is chairman of a House Financial Services subcommittee.

It may not be so reassuring to CFPB’s employees to learn its top officials minimized the risks of rats. The officials said in an interview with TheDCNF its standard of the health risks posed by the rats were actual bites or hospitalization. “There have been no reported bites, hospitalizations, or anything of that nature,” the spokesman explained to TheDCNF.

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, however, warns citizens rats are dangerous to health without a bite. The feces can also be dangerous.

“Worldwide, rats and mice spread over 35 diseases. These diseases can be spread to humans directly, through handling of rodents, through contact with rodent feces, urine, or saliva, or through rodent bites,” the CDC explains on its website.

The Environmental Protection Agency also contains a warning on its website about the dangerous rats pose.

“Each year, rodents cause significant damage to property, crops, and food supplies across the United States. In addition to damaging property, rodents may also spread diseases, posing a serious risk to public health,” according to the EPA.

One of the most common diseases of exposure to rat saliva and feces is something called Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome or HPS, the CDC reports. “HPS is a severe, sometimes fatal, respiratory disease in humans caused by infection with hantaviruses,” the agency notes. “Anyone who comes into contact with rodents that carry hantaviruses is at risk of HPS.”

“When fresh rodent urine, droppings, or nesting materials are stirred up, tiny droplets containing the virus get into the air,” the CDC report continued. This process is known as “airborne transmission.”

“Scientists believe that people may be able to get the virus if they touch something that has been contaminated with rodent urine, droppings, or saliva, and then touch their nose or mouth,” according to the federal government’s top anti-disease agency.

The CDC emphasizes some victims of HPS may not ever come in contact with the rats or their droppings. “Recent research results show that many people who became ill with HPS developed the disease after having been in frequent contact with rodents and/or their droppings around a home or a workplace. On the other hand, many people who became ill reported that they had not seen rodents or rodent droppings at all,” the CDC estimated. “It has a mortality rate of 38 percent.”

A big part of the problem was to move in staff while construction was still underway. “Frankly they shouldn’t have moved people into the building before it was done, but they did,” the CFPB source told TheDCNF.

Construction workers can be seen throughout the basement and first floor where rats can enter the building. “A big part of the problem is that until the building is completely closed in and the construction done, it’s just hard to keep them out,” the employee told TheDCNF.

The CFPB employees requested the ability to telework. Their chief administrative officer agreed, but lower level managers refused to permit telework, according to the source.

“One manager even said, ‘Well you can’t telework unless you’ve seen a rat,’” another CFPB employee complained to TheDCNF.

“It’s just shocking, frankly, to me that the agency, when Richard Cordray was running it, that you would move people into that building when you know there’s a rat problem and not let them telework as an option,” the employee said.

“I have never seen a lack of competence from top-to-bottom from managers. It’s shocking,” he told TheDCNF.

Duffy thinks the idea of “the swamp” was particularly appropriate for the CFPB.

“When we say ‘drain the swamp,’ we typically mean that it’s time to reform unaccountable agencies like the CFPB,” the congressman told TheDCNF. “But because of former director Cordray’s poor leadership, ‘drain the swamp’ even pertains to a literal swamp of rodents.

A version of this article appeared on The Daily Caller News Foundation website.

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A U.K. court upheld an earlier ruling Tuesday ordering a toddler to be taken off life support despite his parents’ desire to continue treating him.

London’s Court of Appeal denied the parents’ request to transfer their son, 21-month-old Alfie Evans, to the Vatican’s Bambino Gesu Pediatric Hospital. The appeals court upheld a lower court’s ruling that sided with doctors at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool, who say that continued treatment is “futile,” according to Crux Now.

Evans suffers from an unknown neurological degenerative condition that has reduced him to what the hospital has called a “semi-vegetable state,” but his parents argue that he is still responsive and say they will continue to fight for him to be treated.

“At this moment, Alfie’s not ready so we’re not ready to let go,” Tom Evans, the boy’s father, told the BBC.

Tom said that he would challenge the ruling before the U.K.’s Supreme Court.

The case bears similarities to the 2017 legal battle over treatment for Charlie Gard, who died at 11 months old after U.K. courts continually deliberated and denied him the option to receive treatment. Then as now, the hospital officials overseeing the treatment of the child have argued that attempting to treat him would be against the child’s best interest — a conclusion that Alfie’s parents contest.

“Our aim is always to try and reach an agreement with parents about the most appropriate care plan for their child. Unfortunately there are sometimes rare situations such as this where agreement cannot be reached and the treating team believe that continued active treatment is not in a child’s best interests,” Alder Hey Children’s Hospital said in a statement, according to Crux.

Justice Anthony Hayden of the U.K.’s High Court agreed in his Feb. 20 ruling with the hospital’s assessment that continuing to treat the Alfie was “unkind, unfair, and inhumane.”

Hayden praised the efforts of Alfie’s parents but ultimately denied them the chance to medically fight for their son’s life. He said that Tom’s urging to “fight on with Alfie’s army” was commendable but that the parents’ had no clear plan for their son’s betterment. Tom, incensed by the ruling, denounced it and vowed that he would continue the fight.

“My son has been sentenced to the death penalty. The system has worked against us. I’m not crying because I know how wrong they are, I know how strong my boy is doing. He is strong, he is comfortable. This isn’t the end. This is just the start. I’m going to take this NHS down. I’m not giving up, my son isn’t giving up. No-one, I repeat, no-one in this country, is taking my boy away from me. They are not violating his rights and they are violating my rights,” Tom said after Hayden’s ruling, according to the U.K. Daily Mail.

The three judges of the appeals court, however, echoed Hayden’s reasoning Tuesday and said that the hospital had given due consideration to the parents’ wishes.

They ruled hospital staff’s decision to remove Alfie from life support and deny his transfer to another hospital was justified since Alfie is, according to their assessment, comatose and unaware of his surroundings.

The parents argue that Alfie is still aware and can still respond to them, but hospital staff say that what the parents interpret as responses are actually seizures, according to the Daily Mail.

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Barrister Stephen Knafler QC, who represents Alfie’s parents against the state, argued that, regardless of the hospital’s assessment, the courts’ rulings overstep their boundaries and interfere with “parental choice,” according to Crux.

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A version of this article appeared on The Daily Caller News Foundation website.

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The United Kingdom’s recently appointed Labour Party LGBT+ adviser thinks that children as young as 8 years old should be able to choose their gender and begin transitioning so they can embrace their true selves.

Biological male and former transgender model Munroe Bergdorf landed a job as a Labour Equalities adviser last week and is now being investigated for comments he made about gender transition for young children.

“The government needs to be putting more money behind services to benefit transgender kids and gender non-conforming children,” Bergdorf said, according to the U.K. Daily Mail.

“If you are putting barriers in people’s way you are forcing people not to be themselves,” he also told The Times U.K.

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell indicated that his office will look into Bergdorf’s comments.

The model said children should not only be able to choose their gender but also access the hormones, therapy and surgical procedures necessary to facilitate their transitions.

“We will be talking to her about her views,” McDonnell said. “It will obviously be investigated by the Leader’s Office,” he added.

Bergdorf also seeks to amend the U.K.’s Gender Recognition Act to allow transgenders to legally change their gender without needing a doctor’s approval.

Medical research shows 80 to 95 percent of children outgrow their gender dysphoria naturally and accept their biological sex post-puberty.

Top studies also show no mental improvement after sex reassignment surgery, and there hasn’t been a single long term randomized study on the effects of hormone-blocking treatments on children.

L’Oreal fired Bergdorf in September after he insisted white people are responsible for all the terrorism in the world.

“Your entire existence is drenched in racism. From microaggressions to terrorism, you guys built the blueprint for this s—,” Bergdorf ranted, according to the U.K. Telegraph.

“Their race is the most violent and oppressive force of nature on Earth,” the former East London model said.

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“Racism isn’t learned; it’s inherited and consciously or unconsciously passed down through privilege,” he added.

A number of persons who object to Bergdorf’s role as the Equalities adviser have started a petition to have him fired from his post.

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A version of this article appeared on The Daily Caller News Foundation website.

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