•  
•  
•  
•  
• e-mail 

100

View comments

Shocking video has emerged of former DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz threatening the chief of US Capitol Police for refusing to return a laptop of hers.

The laptop is currently being held by police as part of a criminal investigation into a staffer.

Wasserman Schultz grilled Capitol Police Chief Matthew Verderosa at a May 18 budget hearing saying that he should 'expect consequences' if the evidence wasn't relinquished.

 

+5

 

Former DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz (pictured) threatened the US Capitol Police Chief at a May 18 budget hearing that there would be 'consequences' if a laptop of hers was not returned 

 

+5

 

Capitol Police Chief Matthew Verderosa (pictured) told Wasserman Schultz that police were holding the equipment as part of a criminal investigation into a staffer and that, until the investigation was completed, it couldn't be returned

Wasserman Schultz, a US Representative for Florida's 23rd congressional district, spent approximately three minutes at the Capitol Police's annual budget hearing trying to extract a promise that the laptop would be returned. 

'Under my understanding, the Capitol Police is not able to confiscate members' equipment when the member is not under investigation. It is their equipment and it's supposed to be returned,' Wasserman Schultz told Chief Verderosa. 

The laptop was taken by police following a report into data breaches inside congressional offices in Washington.

Politico first reported that one staffer under investigation for the theft had worked for multiple Democrats in Washington, but had been fired after the alleged IT breaches.

However, Wasserman Schultz still employed the staffer and that is why her computer was taken by police as part of their investigation.

The chief told the Florida Democrat, because of 'extenuating circumstances', that wasn't the case and that once the investigation was completed, the equipment would be returned.

Wasserman Schultz replied: 'I think you're violating the rules when you conduct your business that way and should expect that there would be consequences.'   

The Capitol Police and other agencies are investigating Imran Awan, who has run technology for Wasserman Schultz since 2005.

He was banned from the House network in February on suspicion of data breaches and theft.

Wasserman Schultz's representatives denied the lawmaker was using her position on the committee that sets the police force's budget to press its chief on the matter of the laptop. 

'The Congresswoman was asking the Capitol Police to follow their own equipment-return policy, and as we understand it, that is now happening,' Communications director David Damron told the Orlando Sun-Sentinel.

'The consequences she referred to would be notifying the Sergeant-at-Arms that this policy was not being followed.'

The public affairs office for the Capitol Police didn't respond to a request for comment.

 

+5

 

Wasserman Schultz's representatives denied the lawmaker (pictured) was using her position on the committee that sets the police force's budget to press its chief on the matter of the laptop

 

+5

 

The Capitol Police and other agencies are investigating Imran Awan (pictured right, with former President Bill Clinton), who has run technology for Wasserman Schultz since 2005, and was banned from the House network in February on suspicion of data breaches and theft

 

+5

 

Several in Washington, DC, including Tim Canova, who unsuccessfully ran against Wasserman Schultz (pictured) in the 2016 Democratic congressional primary, condemned the Florida lawmaker

Tim Canova, who unsuccessfully ran against Wasserman Schultz in the 2016 Democratic congressional primary, condemned the Florida lawmaker. 

'We demand that Wasserman Schultz recuse herself from the House Committee on Appropriations' Legislative Branch Subcommittee on any matter dealing with the Capitol Police budget,' Canova wrote in a Facebook post.

'Now she uses her position on this subcommittee to threaten the chief of the US Capitol Police.'

Canova added that 'as long as Wasserman Schultz is in public life, the Democratic Party will be dragged down'.