Former Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) reportedly had his phone seized by FBI agents at San Francisco’s airport Saturday as the White House released old investigative files.
In a report on Thursday, the Daily Mail said FBI agents confronted Swalwell with a search warrant as he stepped off a plane at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday, the Daily Mail reported. He was cooperative, sources told the outlet.
The following day, agents arrived at his Northeast Washington home with additional court-approved warrants, though neither Swalwell nor his wife, Brittany Watts, was home, the report noted.
The airport confrontation came two days before the White House released a batch of FBI files it described as newly declassified, according to emptywheel.
National security journalist Marcy Wheeler pointed out that the files were actually declassified on March 23 in preparation for California’s June 2 gubernatorial primary. Swalwell had been the frontrunner in that race before dropping out due to sexual allegations.
Back in March, Swalwell’s attorneys had warned FBI Director Kash Patel that releasing the files would violate federal law and a longstanding Justice Department policy against taking investigative action against candidates close to an election.
“The Congressman has never been accused of wrongdoing in that matter and your attempt to release the file is a transparent attempt to smear him and undermine his campaign for Governor of California,” attorneys Norm Eisen and Sean Hecker wrote to Patel in a cease-and-desist letter that March.
The FBI’s own investigation found no wrongdoing by Swalwell and was closed in 2017, The Hill reported. The House Ethics Committee reached the same conclusion in 2023.
“What is new and deeply concerning is the apparent use of federal law enforcement information to punish an outspoken critic of the current administration,” his attorney Sara Azari wrote in a statement Monday. “An investigation that produced no charges and no finding of wrongdoing should not be resurrected years later as a vehicle for political retaliation.”
Swalwell resigned from Congress and dropped out of the governor’s race in April after the San Francisco Chronicle and CNN published sexual misconduct allegations from multiple women.
The Justice Department launched a criminal probe into those allegations that same month, MS NOW reported.
Swalwell has denied all allegations of sexual misconduct and assault. His attorney said he intends to pursue “every available legal remedy” against those she claims orchestrated a “reprehensible campaign of lies.”
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