Eric Swalwell spent 2025 demanding the FBI release every secret it had.
Now Kash Patel is ready to release his Chinese spy files.
The congressman who spent a year screaming about government secrets just begged the FBI to keep his locked away forever.
Eric Swalwell and Christine Fang The Relationship Kash Patel Wants Public
Fang Fang is a Chinese national who worked for Beijing's Ministry of State Security – the Communist government's main spy agency.
Between 2011 and 2015, she burrowed into California politics from the inside.
She raised money for Eric Swalwell's 2014 congressional campaign, placed at least one intern directly inside his Washington office, and slept with at least two Midwestern mayors as part of Beijing's operation.
When the FBI finally briefed Swalwell in 2015 about who she actually was, she vanished back to China within weeks.
She hasn't been seen in the United States since.
The timing has always been suspicious.
The FBI briefed Swalwell. He "immediately cut ties." And then – while the investigation was still open – Fang fled the country.
Republican strategist Arthur Schwartz said it plainly in 2020: Fang fled "possibly after being tipped off by Swalwell."
Nobody charged him with it. Nobody cleared him of it either, because the files that would answer that question have never been made public.
FBI Director Kash Patel has directed agents to gather and redact the decade-old counterintelligence documents for public release. The Washington Post reported the FBI has even discussed flying agents to China to interview Fang directly – because officials believe she has damaging information about the congressman.
Swalwell's lawyers fired back with a cease-and-desist letter calling the release a "transparent attempt to smear him and undermine his campaign for Governor of California."
Why Eric Swalwell's Cease and Desist Letter Will Fail in Court
Jonathan Turley, the George Washington University law professor, went on Sean Hannity's show and made it clear.
Courts won't stop this.
"It is an interesting argument that I don't think is going to hold very well with courts as long as the government complies with operative statutes like the Privacy Act and removes material that's protected," Turley said.
Swalwell's Epstein arguments are now the weapon being used against him.
"He insisted that really full disclosure is needed here regardless of whether there's criminal charges," Turley said. "Well, he's running for the governor of California, and the same types of arguments could be made with even greater emphasis in this case."
Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett finished it off.
Swalwell's status as a sitting congressman gives him zero special protection.
"A member of Congress like Swalwell does not have some unique privacy protection from federal investigations by the FBI, particularly if the probe involves suspected criminal activities," Jarrett said. "His file can be released under a very broad exception to the Privacy Act – that is if it's in the public interest and bears directly on an official's ability to perform his job."
Jarrett didn't flinch: "That certainly applies here."
Sean Hannity had the right word for it: "Checkmate."
Swalwell Demanded Release of Epstein Files While Hiding His Own
Here is what Eric Swalwell actually said about transparency and federal investigations.
In October 2025, he posted publicly: "Release the Epstein Files. Open the Government."
In September 2025, he grilled Kash Patel at a House Judiciary Committee hearing, demanding to know what Trump's name was doing in the Epstein files – insisting the Trump administration was hiding information from the American people.
He accused the administration of a cover-up.
When Trump was facing Jack Smith's prosecution, Swalwell looked into a camera and said that if Trump were innocent, he would want to go to trial as soon as possible to prove it.
Now he's hiding.
His lawyers invoked the DOJ's "60-day rule" – the norm against actions that could influence an upcoming election – the same standard he refused to apply to Trump.
Swalwell told CNN the release would amount to "corruption."
He compared Kash Patel to J. Edgar Hoover.
Not once – in all the screaming – did he hold a press conference and release the files himself.
Swalwell Kept His House Intelligence Committee Seat While Fang Fang Ran His Office
Swalwell sat on the House Intelligence Committee – one of the most classified perches in the United States government – while Fang Fang's role as a Chinese agent was still being investigated.
Beijing had a spy bundling donations for a sitting member of the CIA oversight subcommittee.
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy removed Swalwell from that committee in January 2023, citing the Fang relationship directly.
The House Ethics Committee investigated the matter for two years and closed it in 2023 without taking action. Swalwell has waved that around ever since as proof he did nothing wrong.
But the files that could show exactly what the FBI found – the ones Breitbart confirmed in 2021 contained "intricate and intimate" details about the relationship – have never been seen by the public.
Kash Patel wants to change that.
The man who built his entire political brand on "nobody is above the law" is now arguing that he – a congressman running for governor – deserves protection no ordinary American gets.
He gave us the standard. Kash Patel is just applying it.
Sources:
- Harold Hutchison, "Jonathan Turley, Gregg Jarrett Say Eric Swalwell Can't Stop FBI From Releasing Fang Fang Files," Daily Caller, April 1, 2026.
- Luis Cornelio, "Eric Swalwell Demands FBI Not Release His Files," Headline USA, April 1, 2026.
- "Patel Looking to Release Old Files on Swalwell's Ties to Alleged Chinese Spy," Washington Examiner, March 29, 2026.
- "Report: FBI Wants Documents on Swalwell and 'Fang Fang' Released," Breitbart, March 29, 2026.
- "Eric Swalwell's Lawyers Warn FBI's Kash Patel: Don't Release Files on Closed Spy Investigation," The Hill, March 31, 2026.
- "FBI Director Patel and Rep. Swalwell Spar Over Epstein Files at Hearing," Fox News, September 18, 2025.