WASHINGTON — The FBI stumbled on disgraced ex-Rep. Eric Swalwell’s affair with Chinese spy Fang Fang when the bureau tried to recruit her to be a double-agent, bombshell documents reveal.
Swalwell even joked that his paramour, whose English name is Christine Fang, worked for the Ministry of State Security (China’s CIA), according to declassified documents released Monday by the White House Government Transparency Task Force.
“Congressman Eric SWALWELL … commented that [Fang] was suspected as associated with the ‘Chinese CIA’ [MSS], albeit in a joking manner. [Fang] further joked that all [Ministry of State Security] MSS officers were either old men or ladies, therefore, she could not be MSS,” a 2013 FBI memo said.
“[Fang] remarked that the MSS would have hired prostitutes instead of using an MSS officer directly to entice the officials.”
Two years later, Swalwell was forced to tell feds that he had sex with Fang, something that raised alarm bells at the time because of his position on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
Swalwell infamously confessed in 2015 to “physical relations with Fang on a handful of occasions,” according to the FBI docs.
GOP leadership briefly booted him from the Intel committee, but Democrats later put him back on it.
The 2013 memo revealed that an undercover FBI agent explored the possibility of recruiting Fang, who was codenamed “Rusty Thumbs,” to an FBI cutout company, knowing that her parents were Chinese intelligence officers.
“RT [Rusty Thumbs] advised that she would be able to ‘use her sexuality on politicians,” the memo noted, “if she wished to because she was ‘young and pretty’. RT further explained that she also had an opportunity to marry rich in Beijing, but chose not to because she wanted to find her own path.”
Officials also knew at the time that she personally had “affiliations” with China’s spy agency and took note of her giving inconsistent accounts of her parents’ retirement plans as well as her being “ambiguous” about her past.
Chinese media previously reported that Fang alleged that both the FBI and CIA attempted to recruit her.
Part of what fueled the feds’ belief that they could convert her to some sort of double agent was their belief that Fang’s “motivations appear to be centered on money and power.”
They further assessed that she exhibited “certain egotistical/narcissistic traits which may impact her suitability as a source.”
But in March 2014, agents concluded that Fang could not be trusted to reliably provide information on China in exchange for money and closed the Rusty Thumbs recruitment file.
Six days later, the FBI opened a probe into Swalwell over Fang’s access to him.
The feds gave Swalwell a classified briefing on the matter on April 30, 2015. At the time, he was seeing her every two months, according to the declassified documents.
The tranche of files was marked declassified in March of this year, but didn’t get released to the public until Monday. Swalwell threatened to sue the FBI over plans to release the files on him and Fang. At the time, he was the frontrunner in the Democratic primary for California governor.
“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,” his attorneys wrote in a cease and desist letter to FBI Director Kash Patel at the time.
“Your actions threaten to expose you, others at the FBI, and the FBI itself to significant legal liability.”
Swalwell’s ties to Fang were first revealed by a bombshell Axios story in 2020, which noted that she was suspected of being a Chinese spy.
The Golden State Democrat resigned from the House in April after facing sexual misconduct and rape accusations, which he has vehemently denied.
