FBI Director Kash Patel is pushing to release investigative files from a decade-old counterintelligence probe into Rep. Eric Swalwell's interactions with a suspected Chinese intelligence operative, The Hill reported, citing accounts from both The New York Times and The Washington Post. FBI agents and other personnel in California have been directed to gather and redact sensitive information from the documents in preparation for sharing them with senior Trump administration officials.
The woman at the center of the probe is Christine Fang, also known as Fang Fang. She reportedly helped Swalwell with fundraising and placed an intern in his congressional office during the 2014 campaign cycle. Swalwell severed ties with Fang in 2015 after U.S. intelligence officials briefed him on their suspicions about her.
But the story didn't end there. The Washington Post reported that FBI leaders have discussed sending agents to China to talk to Fang, believing she could possess damaging information about the California Democrat. That detail, drawn from two people familiar with the investigation, suggests the bureau sees unfinished business in a case that has lingered for years without public resolution.
A two-year House Ethics probe into Swalwell's connection to Fang concluded in 2023. It took no further action. The matter appeared settled, at least on Capitol Hill. The underlying FBI counterintelligence investigation, however, generated files that remained under wraps, files Patel now wants surfaced.
The New York Times account cited three people familiar with the matter. The Post cited two. Neither outlet published the specific case name or identified which senior Trump administration officials would receive the redacted materials.
An FBI spokesperson pushed back on the reporting in a statement to The Washington Post:
"The contentions in this story are incorrect. This FBI, being the most transparent in history, prepares documents for numerous different reasons, including for release to different agencies and departments to further review investigations that may have been opened under previous administrations."
That denial is worth reading twice. The spokesperson didn't say the files don't exist. Didn't say no one directed agents to gather and redact them. The statement reframed the effort as routine transparency, a broad review of investigations "opened under previous administrations." That framing may be accurate. It also doesn't contradict the core of what the Times and Post described.
Swalwell, who is running for governor of California, responded on X by casting the FBI's reported actions as political retaliation. He leads the Democratic field with 13.4 percent support in Decision Desk HQ polling averages, roughly four points behind former Fox News host Steve Hilton, the current Republican front-runner.
"The reason Trump is so desperately trying to stop me is not because I'm running for Governor of California but because now I'm the favorite. But Donald Trump and Kash Patel do not get to pick the next Governor. Californians do."
It's a familiar playbook. Swalwell has for years accused the Trump administration of weaponizing the Fang Fang issue to punish him for his criticisms of the president. He said in September that he "fully" expected to be prosecuted by the Trump administration. That prosecution hasn't materialized. But neither has a clean explanation for how a suspected Chinese spy ended up fundraising for a sitting member of the House Intelligence Committee.
Swalwell's legal headaches extend beyond the FBI probe. He faces a lawsuit challenging his California residency in the governor's race. He also dropped a lawsuit last week against Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte over a criminal referral for mortgage fraud, a retreat that drew little media attention.
The Swalwell files are not the only long-buried documents Patel has moved to bring into daylight. He has overseen a broader effort to declassify and release materials from investigations that critics say were politically motivated from the start.
In a parallel action, Patel transmitted nearly 700 pages of declassified "Crossfire Hurricane" records to Congress, the so-called Crossfire Hurricane Redacted Binder, dated April 9, 2025. That release followed a March 2025 executive order from President Trump directing immediate declassification of those materials. A similar push in January 2021 was blocked after Trump left office, and the documents were never publicly released, as Just The News detailed.
The Crossfire Hurricane files carry their own weight. Special Counsel Robert Mueller did not establish criminal Trump-Russia collusion. Inspector General Michael Horowitz documented major FISA-related flaws, including reliance on the discredited Steele dossier. Special Counsel John Durham concluded that "neither U.S. law enforcement nor the Intelligence Community appears to have possessed any actual evidence of collusion in their holdings at the commencement of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation."
Patel has also moved to remove FBI counterintelligence staff tied to politically sensitive subpoenas targeting Trump, a housecleaning that has drawn howls from the left but fits squarely within the director's stated mission to restore institutional credibility.
Separately, a Democratic whistleblower told the FBI in 2017 that then-Rep. Adam Schiff authorized leaks of classified information from the House Intelligence Committee's Russia investigation to damage Trump. Patel said the FBI found and declassified those documents and provided them to Congress. National Review reported that the Justice Department ultimately chose not to investigate further, citing Speech or Debate Clause protections, a decision the whistleblower disputed.
Patel framed the declassification bluntly: "We found it. We declassified it. Now Congress can see how classified info was leaked to shape political narratives, and decide if our institutions were weaponized against the American people."
Swalwell wants voters to see a political vendetta. He insists Trump and Patel are targeting him because he's a threat in the governor's race. Maybe. But the underlying facts remain stubborn.
A suspected Chinese intelligence operative helped raise money for his campaigns. She placed an intern in his congressional office. He sat on the House Intelligence Committee, one of the most sensitive posts in Congress. And the FBI's counterintelligence investigation into those interactions produced files that, a full decade later, have never been made public.
The House Ethics Committee's decision to take no action in 2023 did not amount to exoneration. Ethics probes are political exercises conducted by colleagues with every incentive to look the other way. The FBI's files are a different animal, raw investigative material from agents whose job was to assess whether a foreign adversary successfully penetrated a congressman's orbit.
Swalwell himself once pushed hard for the release of sensitive federal investigative files when the subject was someone else's embarrassment. The principle he invoked then, that the public deserves to know, applies with equal force now.
The FBI spokesperson's careful non-denial leaves plenty of room for the documents to surface. If they do, Swalwell's political future may hinge less on polling averages and more on what those pages actually say about a Chinese spy's access to an American lawmaker.
Meanwhile, the broader pattern under Patel's leadership is unmistakable. From Crossfire Hurricane to the Schiff leak allegations to the Swalwell probe, the FBI is pushing back on years of institutional opacity, opening files that previous leadership kept sealed, often for reasons that look less like national security and more like institutional self-protection.
Transparency is only threatening if you have something to hide.
