Journo calls BS on Eric’s Don rap

Rep. Eric Swalwell suggested on Wednesday that the Trump administration leaked the news of his dalliance with suspected Chinese spy Fang Fang to Axios out of political retribution — a premise the news outlet called “risible” Wednesday night.

Swalwell, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, claimed to CNN and Politico that the story was leaked because of his criticism of the president and work on the impeachment inquiry.

“If this is a country where people who criticize the president are going to have law-enforcement information weaponized against them, that’s not a country that any of us want to live in,” the embarrassed pol told CNN.

“I hope it is investigated as to who leaked this information.”

Swalwell griped to Politico, “I’ve been a critic of the president. I’ve spoken out against him. I was on both committees that worked to impeach him. The timing feels like that should be looked at.”

But Axios shot down the notion of a Trump political vendetta.

“It would be inappropriate for me to talk about my colleagues’ sourcing, but just use your common sense,” Axios national political correspondent Jonathan Swan told Fox News’ Bret Baier Wednesday.

“Even Swalwell acknowledges that he first found out Axios was on this [story] in 2019.

“His timeline’s wrong,” Swan went on, noting that Axios China reporter Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian has “been working on this for more than a year.”

“Anyone who has any passing understanding of how Trump World works, do we really think that they put out some opposition research and then patiently wait[ed] a year — beyond an election — for the very well-respected China correspondent to report it out in a nuanced fashion?” Swan asked.

“I mean, give me a break. It’s completely absurd.”