Show an ad over header. AMP

Eric Swalwell says he was "shocked" when FBI alerted him to suspected Chinese spy

09 December 2020
Dan Ackermann

Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) said Wednesday he was "shocked" when he discovered in 2015 that Christine Fang — a Chinese national who started working with him in 2012 — was a suspected spy who targeted him and other California politicians, as revealed by Axios.

The big picture: Swalwell is not accused of wrongdoing and immediately cut off ties with Fang after receiving a defensive briefing from the FBI, according to a current U.S. intelligence official. The California lawmaker told CNN that congressional offices don't have the "technical capabilities" to run background checks on the people they work with.

  • Swalwell, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said the government needs to invest more in intelligence resources to ensure that foreign agents can't successfully conduct these kinds of operations.

What they're saying: "I was shocked. Just over six years ago, I was told about this individual and then I offered to help, and I did help and I was thanked by the FBI for my help and that person is no longer in the country," Swalwell said.

  • "[T]here was never a suspicion of wrongdoing on my part and all I did was cooperate and the FBI said that yesterday," he added.

Swalwell went on to suggest that the story was leaked to Axios by the Trump administration because of his criticism of the president and work on the impeachment inquiry as a member of the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees.

  • "If this is a country where people who criticize the president are going to have law enforcement information weaponized against them, that's not a country that any of us want to live in," Swalwell told CNN. "I hope it is investigated as to who leaked this information."

Axios reached out to Congressman Swalwell multiple times, but he never agreed to an interview, and he has not disputed any part of our reporting. Our journalism is independent, nonpartisan, and never politically motivated. https://t.co/mCsuGZ796J

— Nicholas Johnston (@AxiosNick) December 9, 2020
  • In an interview with Politico, Swalwell said the Axios story would not cost him his seat on the House Intelligence Committee, adding that his interactions with Fang were "something that congressional leadership knew about it."

Go deeper: Read the full Axios investigation

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

Section2

Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.