Then-Rep. Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat who resigned in disgrace and dropped out of the race for California governor after a sex scandal, is pictured at a Feb. 11 House Judiciary Committee meeting in Washington, D.C. (Win McNamee / Getty Images)
By Jack Davis August 17, 2026 at 11:08am
A new report revealed heretofore unknown aspects of the FBI investigation into the relationship between former Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell of California and a Chinese spy named Fang Fang, who was also known as Christine Fang.
According to Just the News, the FBI found evidence that Fang “had potentially compromised” Swalwell “with sex, foreign interns and illicit donations while she was being recruited to become a bureau informant.”
Documents related to Swalwell were declassified by President Donald Trump and released Monday by the White House Government Transparency Task Force.
“Investigation has revealed Fang ‘Christine’ Fang, a Chinese foreign national residing in the United States, is the facilitator of a scheme to trade access to Swalwell and internships in his congressional office in return for campaign contributions […]” the FBI wrote, according to the Post-Millennial.
Fang “used conduits to conceal herself as a prohibited Foreign National source” for illicit campaign contributions “at least twice in 2013 and at least two more times in 2014,” The FBI wrote.
In summarizing the documents, Just the News wrote 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.”
However, the FBI dropped Swalwell from the probe and focused only on Fang.
“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,” Just the News wrote, citing the FBI report.
Despite evidence against her, the Justice Department declined to prosecute Fang after she fled the U.S.
FBI was recruiting suspected Chinese spy Fang Fang when agents discovered she was compromising then-Rep. Swalwell with sex, interns and illicit donations, bombshell memos show https://t.co/tVpEOebd4p
— John Solomon (@jsolomonReports) August 17, 2026
Initial steps in the Fang investigation were led by prosecutor Jack Smith, who was later to prosecute President Donald Trump for the Biden administration.
The documents said the FBI wanted to recruit Fang to be a confidential informant “and was still evaluating her suitability as a confidential human source when they discovered her alleged criminal behavior,” Just the News wrote.
The site said the FBI was well aware that Fang had tied to China’s Ministry of State Security and that her parents also were Chinese spies.
Swalwell’s office has said it always worked with the FBI in its probe of Fang.
BREAKING: Newly declassified @FBI files show @ericswalwell admitted a sexual relationship with Christine Fang, aka “Fang Fang,” and that the bureau attempted to recruit Fang Fang without her knowledge. pic.twitter.com/3E19g1jBtX
— James Rosen (@JamesRosenTV) August 17, 2026
“Rep. Swalwell, long ago, provided information about this person — whom he met more than eight years ago, and whom he hasn’t seen in nearly six years — to the FBI. To protect information that might be classified, he will not participate in your story,” Swalwell’s office said in 2020, Axios noted.
The 97-page heavily redacted memo said that the FBI confirmed Fang went to Swalwell’s apartment at least twice, detailing the timing of one hookup.
Swalwell ran for governor of California until allegations of sexual assault ended that campaign and led to his resignation from Congress.
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