Declassified Files Reveal Swalwell’s Admission of Relationship with Chinese Spy

Recently released documents, declassified by former President Donald Trump, outline an unusual connection between former Representative Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) and a Chinese national known as Fang Huang. Swalwell reportedly confessed to the FBI about having a sexual relationship with her, which raises significant concerns regarding foreign influence.

The evidence indicates that U.S. officials were aware of this troubling relationship as early as 2014, long before Axios reported on it in 2020.

A collection of documents, referred to as “Rusty Thumbs”—after the codename given to Fang by the FBI—was made public by the White House’s Election Integrity initiative. The summary highlighted potential threats to American politics by foreign operatives.

The FBI noted that a Chinese woman connected to intelligence circles may have compromised a California Democrat through sexual relations, foreign internships, and illicit donations during her time as an informant.

The newly released files document Swalwell’s relationship with Fang Huang, also known as Christine Fang, and were disclosed by the White House’s Government Transparency Task Force in light of ongoing efforts to reveal foreign pressures on the U.S. electoral process.

According to the FBI’s investigations, there were serious allegations suggesting that Fang, thought to be linked to the Chinese government, facilitated campaign donations to Swalwell in return for an internship in his office. One segment of the operation aimed at gathering sufficient evidence for possible criminal charges against Swalwell and Huang, both of whom are associated with China’s Ministry of State Security.

Witness accounts provided to the FBI included a winery owner who recalled Fang advising him to bring his checkbook to campaign events, and a well-off restaurant owner who mentioned he should credit his contributions to Swalwell directly.

The FBI’s case, labeled “Freshman Fifteen,” initially classified as a “confidential investigation” due to Swalwell’s then-active congressional position, indicated potential violations including bribery and illegal campaign contributions.

In a 2015 interview, Swalwell recounted meeting Fang in 2012 during an event aimed at celebrating the Chinese American community. He described her as an “impressive person” and admitted he had drinks with her soon after they met, leading to their sexual relationship, although he claimed it was casual. He noted that their last sexual encounter occurred in March 2015, just before he was interviewed by the FBI.

While he maintained that his relationship with Fang was not serious, he suggested that she may have desired something deeper.

The FBI’s memo pointed out that Huang played a role in a strategy to secure an internship in Swalwell’s office in exchange for campaign funding. It also detailed that Fang used middlemen to conceal her identity as a political contributor in at least two instances.

When re-interviewed by the FBI in March 2016, Swalwell again acknowledged having a physical relationship with Fang but insisted it never formalized into anything deeper. The documents also reveal that Fang was introduced to Swalwell by the Asian Pacific Islander American Public Affairs Association (APAPA), with many interns he hired recommended through this network.

An intern who worked on Swalwell’s campaign was referred to as Fang’s sister, despite them not being related. Another connection involved a student from UC Davis who facilitated an internship for Fang in Swalwell’s Washington, D.C. office.

Fang had even extended invitations to Swalwell and his family to visit China multiple times, but they declined, as he preferred official trip approvals. Interestingly, the FBI had been attempting to recruit Fang as an informant since around 2013, even before the investigation into her political connections commenced.

The FBI had given Fang the code name “Rusty Thumb,” indicating her connections ran deep, with her parents reportedly being “known MSS agents.” Fang herself once admitted to an FBI source that her parents were involved with the Chinese government, akin to the U.S.’s Secret Intelligence Service.

There were indications that Fang was indeed aware of the FBI circling in on her, as she reportedly mentioned her need to return to China and sought help with settling financial matters. Just after expressing these concerns, she left for China and has not returned since, with her last known public sighting in 2024 alongside a prominent figure from Chinese state media.

A memo from the FBI, dated February 2017, concluded that no federal corruption laws were violated by Swalwell and noted a lack of evidence for any reciprocal arrangement between him and Fang. However, the investigation into Fang suggested a more complicated narrative, resulting in findings of several federal law violations on her part. Yet, prosecuting Fang was deemed impractical “for national security reasons.”