House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) filed a resolution to force Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) off of the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday due to Swalwell’s alleged ties to a Chinese spy.
The resolution comes after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reappointed Swalwell to the committee last week.
Present in the resolution is a reference to FBI Director Christopher Wray’s July statement saying, “Beijing is engaged in a highly sophisticated malign foreign influence campaign,” which is to “undermine confidence in our democratic processes and values.”
McCarthy’s resolution noted Swalwell “has not denied public reporting that a suspected Chinese intelligence operative helped raise money for Representative Swalwell’s political campaigns and facilitated the potential assignment of interns into Representative Swalwell’s offices.”
In December, an Axios revealed a years-long political intelligence operation run by the Chinese main civilian spy agency between 2011 and 2015. It showed a suspected Chinese spy developed extensive ties with Swalwell. The Chinese national named “Fang Fang” or “Christine Fang” targeted “up-and-coming local politicians in the Bay Area and across the country who had the potential to make it big on the national stage.”
Swalwell responded to a Fox News reporter’s tweet, accusing this of being the “New McCarthyism” from the GOP leader.
“Meet the New McCarthyism. Multiple sentences in resolution state ‘Swalwell has not denied…,'” the California Democrat tweeted. “Yet fails to include multiple FBI statements of ‘no wrongdoing’ and did nothing but ‘cooperate.’ All of this to deflect from GOP Leader’s support for QAnon.”
Last week, McCarthy tweeted, “Pelosi just reappointed Eric Swalwell to the Intelligence Committee. Based on the briefing she and I received together, Swalwell should not be on the panel in charge of Guarding our nation’s secrets. Next week, I will offer a resolution to remove him from the Intel Committee.”
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