Donald Trump hasn’t been subtle about his contempt for Rep. Eric Swalwell. In recent years, the president has condemned the California Democrat as “a loser,” “a lowlife,” an “idiot” and a “total sleazebag.” If the Republican has an enemies list specifically focused on members of Congress, it’s probably fair to say that Swalwell is near the top.

The question, however, is how far Trump and his team are prepared to go to undermine the progressive lawmaker.

Last fall, as part of a larger effort to weaponize mortgage fraud allegations against the president’s perceived political enemies, Bill Pulte, the Trump loyalist who leads the Federal Housing Finance Agency, referred Swalwell to the Justice Department for a potential federal criminal probe. The complaint appeared highly dubious, and at least so far, nothing has come of it.

Almost five months later, however, the campaign against Swalwell — now a leading Democratic gubernatorial candidate in California — appears to be taking an even more aggressive turn. The Washington Post reported:

FBI Director Kash Patel is pressing to release a decade-old investigative file involving Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-California) and a suspected Chinese intelligence operative, recently dispatching agents in the bureau’s San Francisco office to quickly redact the files before they are released publicly despite no evidence of wrongdoing by Swalwell, according to three people familiar with the effort.

The potential release is part of the Trump administration’s aggressive push to investigate Swalwell, a vocal critic of President Donald Trump and a leading Democratic candidate for California governor, according to the people familiar with the effort.

The Post’s report, which has been confirmed by MS NOW, dovetailed with a related article from The New York Times, which noted that the effort against Swalwell “has alarmed law enforcement officials who said they feared the material could be released publicly to smear” the California Democrat.

If the underlying allegations seem rather stale, it’s not your imagination. While some of the investigatory details are not fully available to the public, in 2012 and 2014 a suspected Chinese operative reportedly tried to make inroads with Swalwell’s campaign.

The FBI alerted the congressman to the concerns, at which point he cut off contact with the suspected spy. By all appearances, the California lawmaker did exactly what one would expect him to do, and at no point did federal investigators accuse Swalwell of wrongdoing. In fact, an FBI official defended Swalwell, explaining that the Democrat was “completely cooperative” and “under no suspicion of wrongdoing.”

In 2015, key Republican leaders were briefed on the situation, and they expressed no concerns about Swalwell continuing to serve on the House Intelligence Committee. Years later, the House Ethics Committee wrapped up an investigation into the matter and agreed to take no action.

That should have been that.

If the latest reporting is correct, however, the Trump loyalist leading the FBI wants the decade-old investigative file released anyway. The Post’s report, highlighting the obvious, noted, “It is highly unusual for the FBI to release case files tied to a probe that did not result in criminal charges.”

Over the weekend, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said in a statement, “The FBI is attempting to smear a sitting U.S. Congressman, candidate for governor, and vocal opponent of the president. What the hell does that have to do with law enforcement? This is plain weaponization of the FBI for partisan political purposes. … The abuse of government information is out of control.”

Around the same time, Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, added in a statement of his own, “Reopening or publicizing a 10-year-old counterintelligence investigation, one that found no evidence of wrongdoing, weeks before an election would be a shocking abuse, even by the standards of Kash Patel.”

Time will tell what comes of this, but whether Team Trump appreciates this or not, there’s a very real possibility that the alleged smear campaign will backfire. Let’s not forget that Adam Schiff’s Democratic Senate campaign in California benefited enormously from Trump’s attacks: The then-representative was able to tell voters honestly that the Republican president and his allies hated him, which made Schiff even more popular in one of the nation’s most Democratic-leaning states.

Swalwell is eagerly looking for ways to differentiate himself in a crowded 2026 gubernatorial field. Patel might be preparing, inadvertently, to do exactly that.

This post updates our related earlier coverage.

The post Democrats see a ‘shocking abuse’ as the FBI’s Patel reportedly targets Eric Swalwell appeared first on MS NOW.

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