Pelosi, Democrats kept Swalwell on Intel Committee despite FBI warnings

When allegations of Rep. Eric Swalwell’s relationship with a woman suspected of ties to Chinese intelligence first surfaced in 2020, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was briefed on the FBI’s findings. The public now knows the bureau had evidence at the time that the woman, Fang Fang, had potentially compromised Swalwell with sex, foreign interns and illicit donations, but Pelosi and Democrats still refused to remove the lawmaker from the powerful House Intelligence Committee. 

The FBI briefings received by Pelosi and her Republican counterpart were so concerning to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy that he called for Swalwell to be booted from the sensitive committee where members have access to classified information. 

Interns, influence, and illegal donations

The full extent of the FBI’s probe into Swalwell and Fang’s relationship was revealed on Monday when the White House Government Transparency Task Force released the investigation files that had been previously declassified by President Donald Trump. They show that Swalwell admitted to having sex with Fang, to his staff placing Fang’s interns in Congress, and to not having a strong enough campaign finance system to detect the straw donations she allegedly passed through U.S.-citizen conduits, Just the News reported. The memos indicate all of this information was possessed by the FBI at the time that it briefed then-Speaker Pelosi in December 2020.    

At the same time that Fang was fundraising for Swalwell and sleeping with him, by his own admission, the files show that the FBI knew Fang was tied to China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS), Beijing’s notorious intelligence service. In fact, the investigators specifically identified her parents as MSS agents. 

Fang Fang’s efforts to influence U.S. politicians were first reported by Axios in 2020. According to the outlet’s comprehensive investigation, U.S. officials believed Fang sought to ingratiate herself with local politicians in the San Francisco Bay Area using campaign fundraising, networking, her charisma, and romantic or sexual relationships. Swalwell was identified as among the most significant targets of Fang. 

Swalwell has consistently maintained that he did nothing wrong, fully cooperated with the FBI investigation, and ceased communicating with Fang after the FBI provided him with a defensive briefing about her activities.

"A vehicle for political retaliation": Swalwell's lawyer says

“There is nothing new here. The government’s own memorandum confirms what Congressman Swalwell has said for more than a decade: he did nothing wrong, and there was no basis to charge him with any offense,” said Sara Azari, legal counsel for Swalwell, on Monday after the files were released. “What is new and deeply concerning is the apparent use of federal law enforcement information to punish or embarrass an outspoken critic of the current administration. An investigation that produced no charges and no finding of wrongdoing should not be resurrected years later as a vehicle for political retaliation.”

After that report, then-House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a Republican from Swalwell’s home state of California, said the allegations “disqualified” the congressman from serving on the Intelligence Committee and called for him to be removed from the panel. “Swalwell is a national security liability,” the Republican leader said in a post to social media. 

McCarthy then requested a briefing from the FBI about the full extent of Swalwell’s involvement with Fang. After that briefing, which was also attended by Speaker Pelosi, McCarthy doubled down on his calls for Swalwell to be removed from the powerful committee. “One thing I know for sure — I had questions about whether he should. That’s the one question that was answered, he should not be on Intel,” McCarthy told reporters after the briefing. 

After the Axios story, Pelosi confirmed that Democratic leadership was first briefed on Swalwell’s relationship with Fang in the Spring of 2015, shortly after the party nominated him to the Intelligence Committee. She said that after Congress was made aware, Democratic politicians cut off communication with Fang. “When that was made known to the members of Congress, it was over. That was the end of any communication with those people,” Pelosi said. The Speaker also said that Republicans were briefed about the relationship at the same time. “We knew when they knew,” explained Pelosi.

Summing up her views on the matter, Speaker Pelosi told reporters that she did not “have any concerns about Mr. Swalwell.”

McCarthy filed a resolution in early 2021 that would remove Swalwell from the sensitive committee after Speaker Pelosi reappointed him to the panel in the new Congress. The House voted mostly along party lines to reject the measure with 200 votes for and 218 against.  

Pelosi’s office did not respond to a request for comment from Just the News. 

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff also backed Swalwell in the face of the resolution that would have removed him from the committee. Schiff, in a letter at the time of the vote, said that Swalwell was a “trusted member of our committee” and he had “acted fully in accordance with his responsibilities” after the 2015 counterintelligence briefing about Fang.  

"Democratic leadership 'jeopardized' Congress": McCarthy says

When Republicans regained control of the House in 2023, now-Speaker McCarthy blocked Swalwell from serving on the House Intelligence Committee, citing the lawmaker’s alleged relationship with Fang. “If you got the briefing I got from the FBI, you wouldn’t have Swalwell on any committee,” McCarthy said after blocking the appointment. “One thing I know for sure – I had questions about whether he should. That’s the one question that was answered, he should not be on Intel.” 

The Republican Speaker told reporters that the Democratic leadership “jeopardized” Congress by allowing Swalwell to remain on the committee, which provides access to sensitive intelligence, for many years. “The only way that they even knew it came forward is when they went to nominate him to the Intel Committee. And then the FBI came and told the leadership then, he’s got a problem,” McCarthy explained. “And they kept him on. That jeopardized all of us.”

New details emerge

Now, for the first time this week, the public can see what the FBI knew when it briefed Pelosi and McCarthy on its investigation into Fang. The files provide significant new details about the long-rumored relationship between Fang and Swalwell, including that:

• The FBI initially wanted to investigate the congressman for a bribery scheme in which he exchanged donations from Fang for her planting interns in his office, but eventually decided to narrow the case to seek criminal charges only against Fang for making illegal donations to the California Democrat through conduits;
• Swalwell admitted to having sex with Fang, his staff placing Fang’s interns in Congress and not having a strong enough campaign finance system to detect the straw donations she allegedly passed through U.S.-citizen conduits; 
• The Justice Department declined to prosecute Fang despite strong evidence of the illicit donations after she fled the U.S. as the FBI began interviewing her associates and raided her home. The early steps in the investigation were overseen in part by controversial prosecutor Jack Smith, who would later pursue Donald Trump on criminal charges; 
• The FBI was recruiting Fang to be a confidential informant through an undercover agent, assigned her the code name Rusty Thumbs, planned to hire her through a cutout company and was still evaluating her suitability as a confidential human source when they discovered her alleged criminal behavior; and
• The FBI knew early on during the recruitment that Fang was tied to China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS), Beijing’s notorious intelligence service. The bureau also identified her parents as MSS agents, knew she was raising money for California Democrats and was willing to use sex as a means of getting ahead in the world of U.S. politics.

You can read the FBI’s files released by the White House below: 

The FBI probe targeting Swalwell and Fang was opened on March 17, 2014, and codenamed “Freshman Fifteen,” according to a now-declassified “Interim Authority” memorandum, which was reviewed by FBI headquarters and the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section, Just the News reported on Monday. 

The FBI assessment, which later became a full-fledged investigation, centered on allegations that Swalwell awarded internships at his offices in exchange for campaign contributions. The FBI identified Fang “Christine” Fang, a Chinese national, as the alleged facilitator of this exchange and alleged she employed conduits to route illegal donations.

Swalwell also admitted that he had “physical relations with Fang” on multiple occasions, according to the FBI summary of his 2015 interview with agents. In a subsequent interview in 2016, Swalwell detailed one incident where Fang showed up at his door, after which Swalwell said they “hooked up,” according to the second interview summary released by the White House. 

The FBI also knew early on that Fang likely had several ties to Chinese intelligence. One memo identified Fang’s parents as “known MSS intelligence officers.” The agents also suspected Fang herself had MSS ties. Before opening the wider probe that included Swalwell, FBI agents were working to recruit Fang as a potential source of information on Chinese influence operations in the United States under the codename “Rusty Thumbs,” Just the News reported.