FBI Director Kash Patel wants investigative files on Rep. Eric Swalwell and Chinese spy Christine Fang released to senior Trump administration officials, according to reports from The Hill citing the New York Times and the Washington Post.
The Daily Caller reported that the files come from a decade-old counterintelligence probe into Fang, known also as "Fang Fang," who reportedly helped Swalwell with fundraising and placed an intern in his congressional office during the 2014 campaign cycle.
FBI agents and personnel in California have already been directed to gather and redact sensitive information from those documents in preparation for sharing them.
Swalwell is currently running for governor of California. The timing could not be worse for him.
Breitbart News confirmed in 2021 that the U.S. Intelligence Community maintained a classified report detailing "intricate and intimate" aspects of the relationship between Swalwell and Fang, including certain sexual acts they allegedly engaged in together. The congressman floated conspiracy theories about the outlet's report but did not deny the intelligence documents existed.
That distinction matters. A denial would have been easy if the documents were fabricated. Instead, Swalwell chose deflection.
The public release of files from an investigation that never produced criminal charges would be, as the Washington Post noted, a "highly unusual step."
But so is a sitting U.S. congressman maintaining a relationship with a foreign intelligence operative while serving on the House Intelligence Committee. Unusual circumstances sometimes demand unusual transparency.
FBI leaders have also discussed sending agents to China to interview Fang directly, according to two people familiar with the investigation. The bureau believes she could possess damaging information about the California lawmaker.
Consider what that means: a foreign intelligence agent cultivated a relationship with a member of Congress who sat on one of the most sensitive committees in the federal government.
She helped raise money for his campaign. She embedded an intern in his office. And the congressman's primary response, years later, has been to cast himself as a victim of political persecution.
Swalwell's public statement tells you everything about his strategy:
"Donald Trump is targeting me. He's trying to influence the election. There is only one reason why: he's scared."
This is a man who had a Chinese spy operating inside his political orbit, and his instinct is to claim the real problem is that someone wants the public to know about it. The "targeting" he describes is the potential release of government documents about a counterintelligence investigation into his own conduct.
The playbook is familiar. When the facts are uncomfortable, reframe the conversation. Don't address the substance. Don't explain how a Chinese intelligence operative got close enough to help run your campaign.
Don't account for what information she may have gathered or transmitted. Instead, accuse the people asking questions of playing politics. This works only if no one ever sees the files.
Breitbart News reported in January that Swalwell's "dealings with Chinese communists may be coming back to haunt him."
That assessment looks increasingly accurate. The machinery of declassification is now in motion, with FBI personnel actively preparing documents for review by senior administration officials.
The American public has a straightforward interest here. A congressman who spent years on the House Intelligence Committee had a documented relationship with a Chinese intelligence asset.
The FBI investigated. No charges were filed. The files were classified. And the congressman went on to run for president, serve on an impeachment team, and now campaign for governor of the nation's largest state.
At every step, the classification of those documents served Swalwell's political interests. The voters of California, who are being asked to hand him the governor's mansion, deserve to know what the FBI found.
The left spent years demanding transparency about foreign influence in American politics. They built entire media ecosystems around the premise that connections between political figures and foreign governments warranted the fullest possible public scrutiny. They were right about the principle, even when they misapplied it.
Now there are actual counterintelligence files, an actual foreign spy, and an actual congressman who benefited from her assistance. The principle hasn't changed. Only the party affiliation of the person under scrutiny has.
Somewhere in a classified filing system in California, the answers sit in folders being prepared for daylight. Swalwell knows what's in them. Soon, so might everyone else.
