Swalwell Sends Cease & Desist To FBI Over Release Of Old Investigation Files: Reports

DUBLIN, CA — Congressman and leading California gubernatorial candidate Eric Swalwell sent a cease and desist letter to the FBI demanding that it not release files related to his past association with a suspected Chinese intelligence operative named Christine Fang.

The Washington Post reported last week that FBI Director Kash Patel directed agents to review and prepare for release files related to Swalwell’s association with Fang, who helped fundraise for his 2014 campaign.

According to The Post, Patel assigned FBI agents based in San Francisco to look into the files and potentially send them to the White House.

Swalwell’s attorneys advised Patel that releasing files related to a case without criminal charges breaks both federal law and Justice Department policy. The letter told Patel that he has three days to respond before facing legal action.

“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,” Swalwell’s attorneys wrote. “Your actions threaten to expose you, others at the FBI, and the FBI itself to significant legal liability. Indeed, disclosure of the investigative file would violate federal law in several respects.”

The files date from 2011 and 2015, when the FBI flagged Swalwell’s relationship with Fang. Swalwell cut ties with her in 2015, according to reports. In 2021, a House Ethics Committee opened an investigation into the relationship, but it closed two years later and Swalwell was not accused of any wrongdoing.

Swalwell derided the investigation as a smear campaign. “MAGA world has tried to smear me the whole way through on this,” he told Politico. “We’re consistently in the lead on this race. We’re running to be — I would say — a continuation of the fighter-protector that Governor Newsom has been. And they see it as a threat. So they’re going to try and go back and run a play that has not worked for the last 10 years.”

The latest gubernatorial polls show a mix of results, with multiple candidates like Steve Hilton, Chad Bianco, Swalwell, Tom Steyer, and Katie Porter clustered in the low to mid-teens.

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