<\/p>\n
Candidate for governor of California Rep. Eric Swalwel, addresses his crowd of supporters at Local Edition bar in San Francisco during the California Democratic Party 2026 State Convention on Friday, Feb. 20, 2026.<\/p>\n
Christina House\/LATimes via Getty <\/p>\n
The Trump administration is pushing the FBI to look into an old investigation on California Rep. Eric Swalwell, a sitting member of Congress and leading Democratic candidate for California governor, the Washington Post reported<\/a> last week.<\/p>\n Swalwell, a former prosecutor and unsuccessful 2020 presidential candidate, called the FBI probe \u201cnonsense\u201d and suggested last week that the president\u2019s directive is an attempt to influence the California governor\u2019s race in which Swalwell says he is \u201cthe favorite.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cThrough great reporting, we now know the outrageous ends the White House will go to target political opponents,\u201d he said in an emailed statement to SFGATE. \u201cAs was Trump\u2019s mortgage case against me, this decade-old story is, of course, nonsense.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n FBI Director Kash Patel reportedly has pushed investigators to revisit files from a decade-old investigation into Swalwell and a suspected Chinese operative, the outlet reported, citing three anonymous sources. Those sources said Patel assigned FBI agents based in the San Francisco bureau to look into those files on Swalwell and send them along<\/a> to the White House.\u00a0<\/p>\n The files date back between the years 2011 and 2015, when the FBI looked into a relationship Swalwell had with a woman who was suspected of being a Chinese agent and had reportedly helped with reelection fundraising in 2014. At the time, federal officials flagged this relationship, and Swalwell cut ties with her and cooperated with agents.<\/p>\n Make SFGATE a preferred source so your search results prioritize writing by actual people, not AI.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Swalwell, who represents parts of Northern California, formerly worked as a deputy district attorney in Alameda County and was a city council member in Dublin before he was elected to Congress in 2012. He served as a House manager on the 2021 impeachment committee against Donald Trump, and also sued Trump and his close allies, alleging they incited the Jan. 6, 2021, riots.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cThe reason Trump is so desperately trying to stop me is not because I\u2019m running for Governor of California, but because now I\u2019m the favorite,\u201d he said in his statement. \u201cWhat Trump wants the most is to have a Western White House. An enabler on the opposite coast. A lot of people have bent the knee to this administration. But I will not. And neither will the people of California.\u201d<\/p>\n Also in an interview with Politico on Sunday, Swalwell reiterated that it\u2019s a smear campaign against him by Trump and his supporters.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMAGA world has tried to smear me the whole way through on this,\u201d Swalwell told the outlet<\/a>. He said that his platform is to be the \u201cfighter-protector that Governor Newsom has been\u201d and that Trump and his supporters \u201csee it as a threat.\u201d<\/p>\n Other lawmakers have come out to blast the Trump administration for wasting FBI resources.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Rep. Jimmy Gomez, who sits on the House Intelligence Committee, said<\/a> that Patel is \u201cwasting resources on this bulls\u2014t\u201d and called it a \u201cpolitical hit-job.\u201d<\/p>\n Sen. Adam Schiff, a Democrat from California, similarly called<\/a> it an \u201cabuse of the FBI.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTime and again, the President and his appointees have weaponized the Department of Justice against those who dare stand up to Trump,\u201d he wrote on Twitter. \u201cThere is no doubt Trump and Kash Patel will stop at nothing to try to tell Californians who their next governor should be.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Since announcing his candidacy<\/a> in November, Swalwell has risen in the polls as a top Democratic candidate along with former Rep. Katie Porter and billionaire climate activist Tom Steyer. Two Republican candidates, former Fox News commentator Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, are leading in recent polls<\/a>. Other Democratic candidates<\/a> include Betty Yee, Antonio Villaraigosa, Tony Thurmond and Xavier Becerra. The primary is on June 2.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Candidate for governor of California Rep. Eric Swalwel, addresses his crowd of supporters at Local Edition bar in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243721,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[101,103,102,104,106,105,1692,3100],"class_list":{"0":"post-243720","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-san-francisco","9":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","10":"tag-san-francisco-news","11":"tag-sf","12":"tag-sf-headlines","13":"tag-sf-news","14":"tag-sfgnews","15":"tag-sfgpolitics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n