Nancy Pelosi spent years telling America she had no concerns about Eric Swalwell.
Now the FBI files are public – and they contradict everything she said.
What those files show about Nancy Pelosi is something she has never been forced to answer for.
Pelosi Got the FBI Briefing on Fang Fang and Reappointed Swalwell Anyway
The White House declassified the FBI's full investigative record this week, and it shows Nancy Pelosi was briefed on Eric Swalwell's relationship with Chinese spy Christine "Fang Fang" Fang as early as the spring of 2015 – the year agents confronted Swalwell directly and learned he had admitted to sleeping with her on multiple occasions.
By that point the bureau had documented her routing illegal campaign donations through American citizen conduits to shield Swalwell's campaign finance records.
Pelosi's response was to reappoint Swalwell to the House Intelligence Committee anyway.
Kevin McCarthy saw the same briefing and reached the opposite conclusion.
"One thing I know for sure – I had questions about whether he should. That's the one question that was answered, he should not be on Intel," McCarthy told reporters.
He filed a resolution to remove Swalwell. Pelosi's Democrats voted 218-200 to keep him in his seat.
Swalwell held a chair on the committee that receives America's most sensitive classified intelligence while a woman whose parents the FBI had identified as Chinese intelligence officers was placing her interns inside his congressional office.
What the Declassified FBI Files Reveal About Illegal Donations and Planted Interns
The released files are more damaging than anything the public was allowed to know in 2020.
Swalwell admitted to agents in 2015 that he had physical relations with Fang on multiple occasions at his apartment, including one encounter he said he barely remembered after taking Ambien.
His staff placed Fang's interns in his congressional offices. He acknowledged his campaign finance operation wasn't equipped to catch the illegal straw donations she funneled through American intermediaries.
The FBI codenamed its investigation "Freshman Fifteen." It opened in March 2014 and ran for three years.
Government Accountability Institute president Peter Schweizer called Swalwell's conduct "incredible recklessness," noting in a Fox News interview that Fang had repeatedly pushed Swalwell and his family to travel to China and even offered to pay for the trip.
One internal FBI memo identified Fang's parents as "known MSS intelligence officers." Agents had been working to recruit her as a confidential human source – codenamed "Rusty Thumbs" – before they uncovered the criminal conduct.
Jack Smith Was Running the Investigation When It Went Cold
The man overseeing the early stages of "Freshman Fifteen" was Jack Smith, then heading the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section – the unit charged with prosecuting elected officials for corruption.
When Fang fled to China in May 2015 as agents closed in, the Justice Department walked away from the case despite what the FBI described as strong evidence of illegal campaign donations.
Swalwell, who had admitted on record to a sexual relationship with a woman whose parents were Chinese intelligence officers and whose interns were sitting in his own office, was never charged.
The bureau shelved the file in 2017 after the State Department barred Fang from reentry.
The same Jack Smith would later devote years and extraordinary resources to prosecuting Donald Trump.
Former DOJ official Jeff Clark was blunt: "Oh shocker, it was Jack Smith when he was at the DOJ Public Integrity Section who was not interested in prosecuting Swalwell of Fang Fang fame."
Democrat congressmen who sleep with Chinese spies get protection – from Pelosi's conference room to the House floor to the Justice Department itself. Republican presidents get special counsels.
Swalwell resigned from Congress in April 2026 after sexual misconduct allegations from multiple women forced him to abandon his California gubernatorial campaign. The FBI files he fought to suppress were released the day before a special election to replace him.
The voters who kept him in office for a decade – and the speaker who kept him on the Intelligence Committee after the FBI told her exactly what he was – owe the country an explanation they will never give.
Sources:
- Steven Richards and John Solomon, "Pelosi, Democrats kept Swalwell on Intel Committee despite FBI warnings," Just the News, August 18, 2026.
- "Declassified FBI Files Detail Fang Fang Donations, Swalwell Relationship and Chinese Intelligence Concerns," [Your]News, August 18, 2026.
- "New Documents Show Jack Smith Let Swalwell Skate in Chinese Spy Case," National Legal and Policy Center, August 18, 2026.
- "Swalwell's recklessness was apparent from the beginning, Peter Schweizer says," Fox News, August 18, 2026.
- Daniel Hoffman, "China's extensive 'honey trap' spy network could involve thousands of ploys underway now," Fox News, December 10, 2020.