San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
John Diaz: Swalwell, former interrogator, now target
From his perch on the Intelligence Committee, Rep. Eric Swalwell had been a leading antagonist of President Trump through the Mueller investigation and the impeachment proceedings. The telegenic East Bay congressman became a goto Trump critic on cable news with his straightahead style, repeatedly suggesting the president was working on behalf of the Russians.
One could only imagine how Trump’s apologists must have longed for the opportunity to bring Swalwell down a notch.
That door opened last week with a story in Axios about a suspected Chinese spy who cultivated ties with local and national politicians, the highest profile of which was Swalwell.
It’s important to note what the story said and did not say. It noted that the Chinese operative, known as Fang Fang or Christine Fang, approached Swalwell back in 2012 when he was on the Dublin City Council. She became “a bundler” ( the term for those who collect contributions) for his 2014 congressional reelection. She recommended an intern who was hired for his office. Once the FBI alerted him to concerns about Fang, Swalwell severed all ties with her and cooperated with authorities.
An FBI official confirmed to The Chronicle that the congressman was “completely cooperative” and “under no suspicion of wrongdoing.”
However, that has not stopped the Fox News evening carnival barkers ( Carlson, Hannity, Ingraham) and some notable Republicans from extrapolating, conflating and speculating beyond anything that appeared in the Axios story.
He was accused on Fox News of everything from being “actually susceptible to Chinese manipulation” ( Laura Ingraham) to possibly having a sexual relationship with Fang ( Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity).
Neither allegation was raised in the Axios story.
House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy even oneupped Ingraham’s argument that the evidence was sufficient to
“boot him off the ( Intelligence) committee” by suggesting Swalwell was a national security threat who should be “removed from Congress.” Trump has shared attacks on Swalwell on Twitter.
Swalwell was uncharacteristically circumspect in a phone interview Friday. One of the few questions he was willing to answer on the record was about the chorus of vitriolic denunciations from his critics.
“Their reaction does not match what the FBI has unequivocally stated, which is: I helped and I was never suspected of wrongdoing,” he said. “And the Congress knew about my cooperation ( in 2015). Both parties. And no one ever raised an objection. I’ll leave it at that.”
He also had a terse response when asked if, upon reflection, he may have revealed anything to Fang that might have been a national security concern. “No. Zero,” he said.
Swalwell explained his reticence by noting that the counterintelligence warnings to Congress about Fang are classified. While his respect for the process may not only be honorable but a matter of law, it puts him in an impossible situation: He is left defenseless against those who would be only too eager to fill in the blanks.
“More than once I said ‘ screw the Chinese communists.’ Little did I know how closely Swalwell was listening,” tweeted Sen. Ted Cruz, RTexas.
The highly detailed Axios account revealed that Fang had interacted with a multitude of elected officials until she returned to China in 2015, using “campaign fundraising, extensive network, personal charisma, and romantic or sexual relationships with at least two ( unidentified) Midwestern mayors” to gain proximity to political power. Citing a current senior intelligence official, it said the U. S. government does not believe she “received or passed on” classified information. Yet the case was considered “a big deal” because of the level of people she encountered.
In retrospect, it seems curious that Swalwell, in taking a leading role against Trump in the Russia scandal, would not have anticipated that his interactions with a China spy — however unwitting and inconsequential — might have become public and used against him by the adversaries he was compiling. Few secrets have shelf life in the nation’s capital, especially in the current polarized atmosphere.
He also is doing himself no favors with his deflection of most questions. Forty and ambitious, he’s still near the starting line of a promising career. One of the adages of politics is that a charge unchallenged becomes a charge that takes root.
For all the furor of the moment, there seems little to no chance Swalwell will lose his seat on the Intelligence Committee, with its access to the nation’s deepest secrets. He has received an unqualified expression of confidence from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“I don’t have any concern about Mr. Swalwell,” Pelosi said Thursday.
Rep. Eric Swalwell is doing himself no favors with his deflection of questions. One adage of politics is that a charge unchallenged becomes a charge that takes root.