WASHINGTON — Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) apparently used his DC home, which is at the center of a mortgage and tax fraud investigation, in a video announcing his California gubernatorial campaign.
Swalwell, 45, kicked off his run for the Golden State governor’s office on Thursday night with a minute-long campaign video that pledged to “keep the worst president in our history out of our homes, out of our streets and out of our lives” and lower the cost of living.
But X users quickly saw something was amiss and began comparing photos of the congressman’s $1.2 million Victorian-style bungalow in the nation’s capital with screenshots from the campaign spot, leading some to conclude that Swalwell had filmed a portion of his promise to “build a new California” — in DC.
“Gavin Newsom’s film credits couldn’t even lure Eric Swalwell into California to shoot [h]is campaign launch video for governor,” one X user snarked in response to the post highlighting the similarities between public photos of the home’s interior before it was purchased and screenshots from the congressman’s video.
The California Constitution requires candidates for governor and lieutenant governor to have maintained residency for at least five years in the state, but Secretary of State Shirley Weber’s office has said its “legal opinion” is “that this provision violates the U.S. Constitution and is unenforceable.”
A Post review of public records did not show Swalwell currently owning any property in the Golden State and, in fact, revealed that the congressman hasn’t been associated with any addresses there for at least a decade, around the time he began gearing up to run for Congress.
Swalwell enters a crowded open primary field to succeed term-limited Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2026, with his former House Democratic colleague Katie Porter leading the pack with 15.7% backing from Californians, according to the RealClearPolitics polling aggregator.
Other Democrats in the race have yet to crack double-digit support, including former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and billionaire Tom Steyer, who just launched his own gubernatorial campaign on Wednesday.
Declared Republican candidates Chad Bianco, the sheriff of Riverside County, and Steve Hilton, a British-American political commentator, are currently registering 13% and 11.3% support, respectively, per RealClear’s early average of surveys.
Steyer and Swalwell both failed to make it to Super Tuesday during the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, having abandoned their campaigns.
Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte referred Swalwell to the Department of Justice for potential prosecution on Nov. 12, alleging that the California Democrat improperly claimed the DC home as a primary residence, a source familiar with the referral previously told The Post.
That declaration allowed the anti-Trump pol to get millions of dollars’ worth of loans and refinancing, the source noted, which could constitute mortgage fraud, insurance fraud and state and local tax fraud, among other charges.
FHFA’s inspector general is also investigating the alleged mortgage fraud, the source added.
The six-bedroom, five-and-a-half bathroom home, located in DC’s historic Eckington neighborhood just a mile’s walk from the US Capitol, had most of its original 1920s interior ripped out and replaced with a modern and more spacious look before Swalwell bought it in 2020, records show.
Swalwell sued Trump two months after the breach of the Capitol by a MAGA mob on Jan. 6, 2021. He had previously served as one of the impeachment managers for the House Democrat-led articles that accused the 45th president of inciting the riot, but a Republican-led Senate acquitted him, in part since he was out of office.
In a statement following news of his criminal referral, Swalwell did not deny wrongdoing but vowed to “not stop speaking out against the president and speaking up for Californians” — or abandon his lawsuit.
California gubernatorial candidates can’t be convicted of felonies involving “any bribe, the embezzlement of public money, extortion or theft of public money, perjury, or conspiracy to commit any of those crimes,” according to the California secretary of state’s webpage.
The referral made him the fourth prominent Democrat to face a mortgage fraud investigation initiated by Pulte.
Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), New York Attorney General Letitia James and Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook all made allegedly false statements about either second homes or rental properties being their primary homes, letting them get more favorable loan terms.
A federal grand jury handed up a criminal indictment of James on Oct. 9 in Alexandria, Va., for bank fraud and false statements to a financial institution in connection with a $109,600 loan she obtained for a residence in Norfolk, allowing her to pocket an extra $19,000 or so.
A separate grand jury in Maryland as of August was considering bringing charges against Schiff, but it has yet to result in an indictment.
Trump fired Cook from the Fed after news broke of the DOJ’s criminal investigation into her rental properties, but she has appealed her lawsuit for wrongful termination to the US Supreme Court.
Reps for Swalwell’s congressional office and campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
