WASHINGTON (AP) – The House rejected a Republican attempt to remove Californian deputy Eric Swalwell from the House’s intelligence panel because of his contact more than six years ago with an alleged Chinese spy who was targeting politicians in the United States.
Democrats rejected the effort of Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy, 218-200, after he forced a vote. His resolution against Swalwell cited information, first reported by Axios, that the suspected spy, Christine Fang, contacted Swalwell’s campaign when he first ran for Congress in 2012. She also participated in fundraising for her 2014 campaign and helped put an intern in her office, said the report.
Federal investigators alerted Swalwell about her concerns – and reported to Congress – about Fang in 2015, at which point Swalwell says he cut off contact with her. The authorities have not accused him of any wrongdoing.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said in a letter to colleagues on Thursday that Swalwell is a “trusted member of our committee” and that he “acted fully in accordance with his responsibilities” after the counter briefing – 2015 spy. Schiff said that Republican leaders, including then-mayor John Boehner, and then-president of the intelligence panel, Republican deputy Devin Nunes, were briefed on the situation at the time and “expressed no opposition to continuation of his service on the committee. “
McCarthy requested his own briefing on Swalwell after the Axios report in December. After the briefing, which was also attended by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, McCarthy said he thought Swalwell should be removed.
The Republican resolution comes at a time when the once-bipartisan intelligence panel deals with the raw feelings left by investigations into former President Donald Trump’s links with Russia. While Schiff and Nunes already worked together, the Trump era destroyed that when the panel became one of the most divided in the entire Congress. Democrats encouraged investigations into Trump, while Republicans fiercely defended him.
Swalwell has been one of Trump’s biggest critics and served as the House’s impeachment manager during the former president’s second impeachment trial last month. He briefly ran for president in 2019.
Introducing the resolution, McCarthy said that the members appointed by Pelosi to the Intelligence committee “must have the highest level of credibility and character” and that “no member should be compromised in any way”. Committee members are regularly informed about sensitive national intelligence.
Swalwell’s office issued a statement in December saying he had “long ago” provided information to the FBI about Fang, which he said he had known for more than eight years and had not seen for almost six years. He declined to comment further “to protect information that can be classified,” the statement said.
Asked about the removal attempt earlier this week on MSNBC, Swalwell said that when he learned that someone who was helping his campaign “was not who we thought he was, we kicked the person out and helped the FBI.” But he declined to discuss further details, saying he “honored my oath to national security”, unlike those who leaked it several years later.
“It’s just a matter of revenge because of my role in the impeachment and accountability process for the president,” said Swalwell. “And I think people understand that.”
The vote comes after the House voted to remove Republican MP Marjorie Taylor Greene from its two committees last month, an unprecedented punishment that Democrats said she won for spreading violent and hateful conspiracy theories.
Republicans then argued that Democrats should not decide who Republicans would nominate for the committees.
“If that is the new standard,” said McCarthy at the time, “we have a long list.”