Eric Swalwell has issued a cease-and-desist letter to FBI Director Kash Patel over threats to release investigative files about a suspected Chinese spy who infiltrated his office.
In the letter, Swalwell, who is considered the Democratic frontrunner for in the race for California governor, demanded the FBI to agree within three days not to release the files, and that doing so could result in legal action, according to the Washington Post.
Swalwell held a press conference earlier in the day, insisting the “case is closed” and accused Patel as a “temporary employee” engaged in a “horrendous abuse of power” in digging up the investigative files about him and and Christine Fang — a suspected Chinese Communist Party asset who cultivated ties with the East Bay rep starting when he was a Dublin city council member.
Fang, also known as “Fang Fang,” was a student at California State University East Bay who began schmoozing Swalwell at events, Axios reported in 2020, even bundling donations for his campaign and recommending interns for his office.
Sign up for the California Morning Report newsletter
California’s top news, sports and entertainment delivered to your inbox every day.
Thanks for signing up!
Trump officials ordered FBI agents to compile records of the decade-old investigation of Swalwell’s ties to Fang, who reportedly left the US in 2015 after worming her way into Swalwell’s orbit and carrying on romantic or sexual relationships with two midwestern mayors, per Axios.
Sean Hecker and Norman L. Eisen, Attorneys for Swalwell, called the move a “smear attempt” to undermine his run for governor, adding that releasing the files would violate the Privacy Act of 1974, The Washington Post Reported.
“The congressman has never been accused of wrongdoing in that matter and your attempt to release the file is a transparent attempt to smear him and undermine his campaign for governor of California,” the letter said, according to the outlet.
“Your actions threaten to expose you, others at the FBI, and the FBI itself to significant legal liability.”
The FBI and a House ethics committee did not identify any wrongdoing on Swalwell’s part in the espionage case, but former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy ordered a House ethics probe when he became speaker in 2021.
Swalwell waved away the scandal as “lies and bulls–t” in a podcast interview last week, adding: “Independent folks have said enough on this.”
