In an effort to embarrass and potentially discredit Congressman Eric Swalwell as he makes a bid for California governor, President Trump and FBI Director Kash Patel are rooting around a story that goes back over 14 years regarding a Chinese "honey pot" spy case.

The fact of the matter is, in Democrat-dominated California, any squabble with President Trump is probably great for Rep. Eric Swalwell's gubernatorial campaign. But lest he have his name dragged through the mud and see Republican-funded TV spots depicting him with a Chinese spy, Swalwell is trying to nip things in the bud with an FBI effort to reexamine a now decade-old Chinese espionage case that briefly involved Swalwell and his original 2012 campaign for Congress.

You may recall the story of Fang Fang, aka Christine Fang, an apparent "honey trap" operative of the Chinese government who was engaged in efforts to befriend — and/or sleep with — multiple low-level American officials, as part of some broader influence campaign by Chinese intelligence. This involved her allegedly sleeping with two unnamed mayors of Midwestern cities, one of whom called her his "girlfriend," doing fundraising work for former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard in Hawaii, and spending time in the Bay Area working with the campaigns of both Swalwell and then-candidate Ro Khanna, who first ran for Congress in 2014.

Swalwell was arguably Fang's most high-level target, and there is no evidence of anything romantic or sexual ever occurring between them. The FBI suspected Fang of conducting a "long game" spying operation in the US to sway the opinion of key decision-makers, and the agency reportedly questioned Swalwell and cleared him of any wrongdoing sometime in the last decade — he said he had not seen Fang since 2014, after she had briefly worked doing fundraising for his campaign in 2012, and placing an intern with the campaign. Nonetheless, the story came to light in an Axios exposé in late 2020.

Still, as Swalwell looks at becoming the potential frontrunner in the race for governor, FBI Director Kash Patel wants to make some hay of the story, to please Herr Trump. As the Washington Post reported over the weekend, Patel was looking to post documents from the case online in an effort to embarass Swalwell, and he reportedly sent agents to the FBI's San Francisco offices last week to redact the documents for this purpose.

Swalwell gave a press conference outside those offices, at the Burton Federal Building, on Monday, to call attention to the shenanigans — because he clearly sees that it's likely to benefit him in voters' eyes.

"We need a governor who can be a fighter and a protector,” Swalwell said, per Bay Area News Group. “That’s why they’re targeting me, I’m the only name in the race that they know. The only one that they’re threatened by because we promised to continue with what Governor Gavin Newsom has done."

The New York Times reported Monday that Swalwell, through his attorneys, had sent a cease-and-desist letter to the FBI seeking to block the release of the documents. The letter detailed three ways in which such a release would violate federal law, one of which was the attempted punishment of Swalwell for negative comments about the president, violating his free-speech rights. The letter also suggested that the release would violate the Privacy Act of 1974, and that it would violate Justice Department rules barring federal agents from attempting to influence an election.

This is the second major effort that we know about by the Trump administration to target Swalwell for punishment, the first being the mortgage fraud investigation launched into Swalwell in November, before he'd even announced his candidacy for governor.

Previously: Suspected ‘Honey Trap’ Chinese Spy Targeted Bay Area Congressmen Swalwell and Khanna

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