Federal agents armed with a search warrant met former congressman Eric Swalwell at the gate when he stepped off a plane in San Francisco, seizing his cell phone and electronic devices as part of a criminal investigation into sexual misconduct allegations.
The confrontation happened Saturday at San Francisco Airport, where FBI agents were waiting for Swalwell as he arrived on a flight from Washington, DC. They served him with a court-approved search warrant and took his phone along with other electronic devices. Swalwell, a former Democratic congressman from California, cooperated with agents, according to well-placed sources who spoke to the Daily Mail.
The next day, FBI agents executed additional search warrants at Swalwell's residence in northeast Washington, DC, and seized undisclosed potential evidence. Neither Swalwell nor his wife, Brittany Watts, was home when agents entered the property.
The warrants stem from a federal criminal investigation the Department of Justice opened in April into allegations of sexual misconduct against Swalwell. At least four women have accused him. Both the DOJ and the FBI declined to comment.
The accusations against Swalwell are serious and span from 2018 to 2024. One woman alleged he drugged and raped her in 2018. A former staffer in his congressional office alleged he raped her twice, once in 2019 and once in April 2024, when she was too intoxicated to consent. Two of the women said he sent them unsolicited explicit photographs of himself.
The former staffer gave her account to CNN. She described the April 2024 incident as occurring after a night of heavy drinking in New York City, saying she woke up to Swalwell having sex with her in his hotel bed. The incident took place after she had stopped working in his office.
In her own words:
"I was pushing him off of me, saying no. He didn't stop."
Swalwell has denied any wrongdoing in connection with the sexual assault and misconduct allegations. He acknowledged making "mistakes in judgment" and apologized to his wife. He has not been charged with a crime as of publication.
The FBI's move on Swalwell came the same week the White House Transparency Task Force released declassified government records about his past interactions with Christine Fang, a Chinese national widely described as a suspected Chinese spy. The documents were released Monday under the title "Rusty Thumbs", another moniker given to Fang, whose real name is Christine Fang but who was commonly known as "Fang Fang."
The records show that Swalwell admitted to the FBI he "occasionally hooked up" with Fang. Fox News reported that the declassified FBI files detail Swalwell meeting Fang in 2012 and having physical contact with her on multiple occasions. Swalwell acknowledged the physical relations but denied having a romantic relationship with her.
Fang spent years cultivating relationships with rising California Democrats. She helped bundle donations for Swalwell's 2014 re-election campaign and placed an intern in his congressional office, a level of access that raised alarms among counterintelligence officials. Swalwell has not been accused by law enforcement of any wrongdoing in the Fang Fang matter, but the timing of the declassified records landing in the same week as the FBI search warrants added another layer of scrutiny to a former congressman already facing a criminal probe.
The federal probe is not the only investigation bearing down on Swalwell. The Manhattan District Attorney's Office and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department have also been investigating him, according to the New York Post. The convergence of federal and local investigations across multiple jurisdictions underscores how broadly the allegations have spread.
Swalwell's political career has already collapsed under the weight of the accusations. He dropped out of the California governor's race, which he had once led, and resigned from Congress. He has kept a low profile since.
The fallout has extended into Swalwell's personal life. His wife, Brittany Watts, 41, was photographed by the Daily Mail in May stepping out of their DC residence without her wedding ring. The couple was introduced by mutual friends in 2015, and the state of their nine-year marriage is now openly in question.
A friend of the family captured the mood plainly:
"Eric has been accused of horrible things. How do you live with that?"
The Daily Mail reached out to Swalwell for comment but did not report receiving a response.
Search warrants of this kind require a federal judge to find probable cause that evidence of a crime exists in the places to be searched. The fact that agents obtained warrants for both Swalwell's person at the airport and his residence in Washington suggests prosecutors have assembled enough evidence to persuade a court, twice, in two locations, that the investigation warrants this level of intrusion into a former member of Congress's private life.
No charges have been announced. The specific court that issued the warrants and the full scope of what agents sought remain undisclosed. What was seized from the DC residence beyond what the Daily Mail described as "additional undisclosed potential evidence" has not been made public.
Swalwell spent years on the House Intelligence Committee lecturing the country about accountability, transparency, and the rule of law. He built a media career on demanding that powerful men answer for their conduct. Now the FBI has his phone, prosecutors have his files, and four women say he owes answers of his own. Accountability, it turns out, is not just for the other side.
