Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), who sits on the sensitive House Intelligence Committee, said in response to an explosive story about ties to a suspected Chinese spy that “congressional leaders knew about” the matter and implied that they apparently did not think that it was a big enough issue to keep him off the Intelligence Committee.
The alleged spy, Chinese national Christine Fang, “targeted up-and-coming local politicians in the Bay Area and across the country who had the potential to make it big on the national stage” through “campaign fundraising, extensive networking, personal charisma, and romantic or sexual relationships,” Axios reported. “Even though U.S. officials do not believe Fang received or passed on classified information, the case ‘was a big deal, because there were some really, really sensitive people that were caught up’ in the intelligence network, a current senior U.S. intelligence official said.”
“Amid a widening counterintelligence probe, federal investigators became so alarmed by Fang’s behavior and activities that around 2015 they alerted Swalwell to their concerns — giving him what is known as a defensive briefing,” the report continued. “Swalwell immediately cut off all ties to Fang, according to a current U.S. intelligence official, and he has not been accused of any wrongdoing.”
Swalwell responded to the story by suggesting to Politico that the story had been leaked by the Trump administration to damage him as payback for his attacks against President Donald Trump regarding Russia.
Politico reported, “Swalwell refused to discuss his relationship with Fang, although he did say the controversy was not going to cost him the Intelligence Committee seat.”
At the very end of Politico’s report, Swalwell said, “As the story referenced, this goes back to the beginning of the last decade, and it’s something that congressional leadership knew about it [sic].”
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy slammed Swalwell during a Fox News interview on Tuesday night, calling for him to be immediately “removed” from the Committee and from Congress.
“Did Nancy Pelosi know this had transpired when she put him on the Committee?” McCarthy said, later adding, “Did Adam Schiff know as chairman of that Committee that [Swalwell] had this problem?”
Fox News host Tucker Carlson said during a segment on his show last night that “U.S. Intelligence officials believe Fang had a sexual relationship with Eric Swalwell.”
“We asked Swalwell’s office about that directly today, his staff replied by saying they couldn’t comment on whether or not Swalwell had sexual relationship with Fang because that information might be ‘classified,'” Carlson continued. “They did not elaborate or explain what they meant by that.”
Swalwell is the second Democrat to face calls for removal from their Committees over the last week as another member of Congress called for the same action to be taken against Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI).
“Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA) is calling for the removal of Tlaib from her congressional committees after Tlaib reportedly attended a conference last week that was described as ‘anti-Israel,'” as The Daily Wire reported. “The call also comes after Tlaib recently promoted a highly inflammatory tweet on her Twitter account that used a phrase that has long been associated with extremist calls to eliminate the state of Israel.”