The Trump administration on Monday released the declassified FBI file on former Rep. Eric Swalwell and suspected Chinese intelligence operative Christine Fang, publicly airing a dossier Swalwell had spent months trying to keep sealed.
Distributed by the White House Government Transparency Task Force, the documents detail a 2014 FBI inquiry code-named “Freshman Fifteen.” Agents examined whether internships in Swalwell’s congressional office had been traded for campaign contributions, with some funds allegedly routed through U.S. donors to conceal Fang’s status as a foreign national, also known as Fang Fang.
According to the redacted records, in a 2016 interview conducted with Swalwell’s lawyer present, he admitted to a sexual relationship with Fang. He told agents she had visited his apartment and that he barely recalled one late-night encounter because he had taken Ambien beforehand.
The records further show that, before opening the criminal case, the FBI tried to recruit Fang as an informant on Chinese influence operations.
The bureau ultimately found no federal violations by Swalwell, removed him as a subject in 2017, and retitled the case in Fang’s name. Fang was never charged; she had already left the country and was barred from returning, with prosecutors citing national security in closing the file.
Swalwell pushed back on the release hard earlier this year. In March, his attorneys Sean Hecker and Norm Eisen sent a cease-and-desist letter to FBI Director Kash Patel, calling the planned publication “a transparent attempt to smear him and undermine his campaign for Governor of California.”
As Sources Say News first reported, Swalwell’s legal team also argued that releasing the files would appear to weaponize the Justice Department. They cited Swalwell’s past relationship with Katie Miller — now the wife of White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller — which occurred roughly a decade ago when she was a Capitol Hill intern in her early twenties, sources said. Miller has said she was unaware the relationship had been discussed with the department, and a source familiar with the matter said no written comments about her appeared in the DOJ documents.
At the time, the Justice Department under Attorney General Pam Bondi communicated with Swalwell’s lawyer about the case before initially declining to release the files, DOJ sources confirmed.
Bondi rejected any suggestion of a cozy relationship with Swalwell, telling Sources Say News her “ONLY contact with the Congressman was regarding death threats to his wife and children.”
The department maintained that it “investigates crimes irrespective of politics.” Swalwell has denied that Bondi tipped him off and declined further comment.
Other events soon overtook those political fights, with Swalwell dropping his gubernatorial bid in April amid separate sexual-misconduct allegations — which he denies — and resigning from Congress days later.
He was never charged in connection with Fang, and a House Ethics Committee review closed without action in 2023.
