House Leader Kevin McCarthy said Sunday that all members of the House Intelligence Committee should receive a classified FBI briefing on Democratic Representative Eric Swalwell’s relationship with a suspected Chinese spy.
McCarthy received a closed-door FBI briefing on Swalwell’s close ties to Christine Fang, a suspected Chinese intelligence operative, on Friday and said afterwards that he thinks Swalwell should not be on the House Intelligence Committee.
“I’m going to request that every single member on the House Intelligence Committee gets the exact same briefing from the FBI that I did,” McCarthy said Sunday on Fox News. “Because if this individual is sitting on this committee — Eric Swalwell — they’ve got to know the background of what has gone on. I can’t talk about the classified part, but you know what’s out there in the press.”
“No one that was in that room could walk out and say Eric Swalwell should be on the intel committee,” McCarthy said of the briefing. “I don’t know — they had a briefing before in 2015 and I don’t know what that briefing was like compared to this one, but it could not have been the same.”
Between 2011 and 2015, Fang developed close relationships with Swalwell, bundling donations for the up and coming lawmaker and even placing an intern in his office.
Since Swalwell’s ties to Fang came to light earlier this month, Republicans on the intelligence committee have demanded answers, some even calling for an investigation and for him to be immediately removed from the committee in order to deprive him of the access to classified information that comes with membership on the high-profile panel.
Fang, believed to have been acting at the behest of China’s Ministry of State Security, helped fundraise for Swalwell’s 2014 re-election campaign and helped place at least one intern in the California Democrat’s office.
Fang also had romantic or sexual relationships with at least two Midwestern mayors over a three-year period. Swalwell, who married shortly afterwards in 2016, declined this week to answer questions about whether his relationship with Fang was sexual or romantic in nature.
In 2015, federal investigators briefed Swalwell on their concerns about Fang, at which point he says he severed all his ties with her. However, Swalwell’s brother and father remained connected with Fang on Facebook.
Swalwell said Tuesday that he has committed no wrongdoing and expressed confidence that the controversy will not threaten his seat on the House Intelligence Committee.
“The one answer that I got out of that briefing was there is no way Eric Swalwell should continue to serve on the intel committee,” McCarthy added, noting that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would have to remove Swalwell from the committee if he refuses to step down.