Former Rep. Eric Swalwell admitted with to sleeping with a suspected Chinese intelligence operative in newly declassified documents.
Christine “Fang Fang” Fang reportedly showed up at Swalwell’s apartment banging on his door before she and the California Democrat “hooked up” after he had taken Ambien, newly declassified FBI files say.
The interview summary, released Monday by the White House Government Transparency Task Force after being declassified by President Donald Trump, said Swalwell had little memory of the encounter.
“FANG left after a couple hours. Swalwell barely remembers the event because he had taken Ambien prior to FANG arriving,” the FBI summary stated.
The files placed that Ambien episode among encounters that “probably” occurred before Swalwell was elected to Congress. He joined the House in 2013.
🚨 IT'S OFFICIAL: BOMBSHELL declassified files confirm the FBI was RECRUITING Chinese spy "Fang Fang" while she was compromising then-Rep. Eric Swalwell
He ADMITTED to s*xual relations with her, "multiple times"
Then she fled to China. DOJ and Jack Smith CLOSED the… pic.twitter.com/qbmTNMQDwp
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) August 18, 2026
The apartment episode was only one part of the FBI’s account of Swalwell’s relationship with Fang, whose access to him became part of an investigation involving suspected foreign-intelligence ties, campaign money and referrals of interns to his political operation.
In FBI interviews at the bureau’s Oakland field office in May 2015 and March 2016, Swalwell told agents he had “physical relations” with Fang on a “handful of occasions.”
The records say he met Fang in 2012 and had a drink with her a couple of weeks later. His final physical encounter with her came in March 2015, the files said.
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Swalwell described the relationship as “casual” and told agents the two “never dated” and “never had a romantic relationship.”
He also believed Fang “may have wanted a more romantic relationship,” according to the FBI summary.
Just the News first reported on the files, which offer new detail after Swalwell had for years refused to say whether his interactions with Fang were sexual or romantic and had dismissed allegations about the matter as GOP attacks.
The FBI interest in Fang was not limited to her intimate access to Swalwell.
Financial records cited in the files indicated Fang used conduits to conceal herself as a prohibited foreign-national source and arranged conduit contributions to Swalwell’s campaign at least twice in 2013 and at least twice more in 2014.
Agents also examined whether Fang facilitated access to Swalwell and internships in his congressional office in exchange for campaign contributions.
Swalwell told investigators that any internship candidate Fang recommended was treated by him as a referral through the Asian Pacific Islander American Public Affairs Association, or APAPA, an organization with which Fang was reportedly connected.
The FBI did not find evidence that Swalwell committed federal corruption violations or participated in a quid-pro-quo scheme.
The bureau removed Swalwell as a subject of the investigation in 2017, while still indicating that Fang had violated federal election laws involving foreign-national and conduit contributions.
Fang’s suspected intelligence connections gave the political-money allegations another layer.
The FBI had previously tried to cultivate Fang as a confidential source under the codename “RUSTY THUMBS,” the declassified records say.
Agents suspected she had ties to China’s Ministry of State Security. The files also said her parents were reportedly considered known Chinese intelligence officers.
Fang pushed Swalwell more than once to go to China, the records said.
In the 2016 interview, Swalwell told agents Fang “would generally mention that SWALWELL should go to CHINA.”
She also invited someone in Swalwell’s circle to visit China at a November 2014 election-night party, he told the FBI.
Swalwell said he cut off contact with Fang after his first FBI meeting about her.
Before that break, agents had given him a late-April 2015 defensive briefing about foreign-intelligence targeting and specifically discussed Fang and her connections.
The Swalwell files arrived as another California Democrat was dealing with a separate sexual-conduct inquiry on Capitol Hill.
The House Ethics Committee announced an investigation into Rep. Jimmy Gomez over allegations that he had “inappropriate sexual conduct” with a House staffer.
Gomez previously admitted to an extramarital affair after CNN reported on allegations of an inappropriate relationship, though he denied breaking the law or violating House ethics rules.
“Years ago, I made personal mistakes outside my marriage that have caused real pain to my wife and family,” Gomez said at the time.
“Although my actions were consensual in nature and haven’t violated the law or House ethics rules, that doesn’t diminish the impact that these mistakes have made on those I care about the most.”
Gomez said he had taken responsibility and sought professional help while working privately with his wife and family.
The ethics panel said Monday that members of Congress are restricted from having sexual relations with House staffers.
The Gomez matter added another political headache for California Democrats, but the declassified Swalwell records left a different set of questions around Fang’s access, her suspected Chinese intelligence ties and her campaign activity.
The files say Swalwell was not found to have joined a corruption scheme.
Fang, meanwhile, was described in the records as a suspected Ministry of State Security contact, an alleged source of foreign-national and conduit campaign contributions, and the woman the FBI once tried to cultivate under the codename “RUSTY THUMBS.”
