A former Democratic member of the House is reportedly under the type of surveillance normally reserved for suspected terrorists, according to a new report.
Ex-Rep. Eric Swalwell, once one of President Trump’s most persistent political antagonists, is now under close watch by Kash Patel’s FBI — who used an international flight to try and hack his phones, The Atlantic reported Wednesday.
Swalwell on Aug. 8 boarded a United Airlines flight from Frankfurt, Germany, to Washington, D.C., unaware that federal agents were monitoring him for the entire nine-hour trip, according to the report.
“The FBI had asked the Federal Air Marshal Service to covertly monitor Swalwell on board and to watch him use his electronic devices, to see whether its officers could visually ascertain his passcodes,” reporter Shane Harris wrote. “Air marshals are trained to blend in with other passengers and quietly keep tabs on their subjects, who are usually suspected terrorists or potential hijackers, not politicians.”
Swalwell has long been targeted by members of the administration including Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, who has called Swalwell a “scumbag,” and Patel, who previously described him as one of the “corrupt actors of the first order,” the report states.
According to The Atlantic, the “directive authorizing air-marshal surveillance identified Swalwell as the ‘focus’ of an FBI investigation but offered no further detail.”
A week after the Frankfurt flight, when Swalwell landed at San Francisco International Airport, the FBI was reportedly waiting with a search warrant.
“They seized his mobile phone and personal computer,” wrote Harris. “It’s not clear whether, by that point, the FBI knew the passcodes to unlock those devices.”
Current and former officials told The Atlantic that several aspects of the FBI’s request were unusual.
“The FBI does not usually investigate sexual assault. For another, asking air marshals to obtain a subject’s electronic passcodes is considered out of the ordinary even for traditional subjects of surveillance, one former official said,” Harris wrote.
“The agency presumes that requests for assistance from the FBI, which are not unusual, are relevant to a legitimate investigation. But the bureau’s behavior here undermines that confidence, the former official added.”
The post Patel’s FBI caught stalking Trump foe with tactic reserved for terrorists: report appeared first on Raw Story.
