# Debbie Wasserman Schultz **Debbie Wasserman Schultz** (born September 27, 1966) is a South Florida Democratic congresswoman who chaired the Democratic National Committee from 2011 until hacked DNC emails forced her out in July 2016 — and who became the focus of the "Awan brothers" IT-spy conspiracy theory. ## DNC resignation [[WikiLeaks]] released hacked DNC emails on July 22, 2016 (see [[DNC Hack]]); Wasserman Schultz announced her resignation two days later, effective after the convention. ## The Awan affair In February 2017 Capitol Police accused five House IT staffers, including Imran Awan, who worked for her office, of security violations; she kept him on until his arrest at Dulles on July 24, 2017 on bank-fraud charges involving credit-union home-equity loans. The [[Daily Caller]] and then [[Donald Trump]] (who tweeted about a "Pakistani mystery man" in April 2018) promoted claims that Awan had stolen House data or a Democratic caucus server. The case ended on July 3, 2018 with a guilty plea to a single false-statement count. In the plea agreement, prosecutors working under a Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney stated they had found "no evidence" that Awan illegally removed House data, stole the caucus server, or improperly accessed government information. He was sentenced to time served. Awan sued the Daily Caller and [[Regnery Publishing]] in 2020 *[single-sourced]*. ## 2026 After redistricting made her old seat Republican-leaning, she ran in Florida's 20th District and won the August 18, 2026 Democratic primary over Dale Holness, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick and others; WLRN reported about 45% of the vote *[single-sourced]* and criticism over Black representation in the district. She faces Republican Brent Andersen in November. ## RWKB angle The Awan story is a model right-wing conspiracy cycle — outlet to president to collapse — that ended in the Justice Department's own written finding of "no evidence." ## See Also - [[DNC Hack]] - [[Seth Rich Murder Conspiracy]]