FBI Reportedly Had Air Marshals Spy on Eric Swalwell To Try To Obtain Passcodes

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The Federal Air Marshal Service covertly monitored former Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) to attempt to obtain his passcodes after the FBI asked it to do so, The Atlantic reported on Wednesday.

Last month, the FBI stopped Swalwell at San Francisco International Airport and seized his electronic devices. The bureau also executed a search warrant at his home in D.C. The seizure came just two days after it was publicly reported that Swalwell had told the FBI in 2015 that he had an intimate relationship with Christine Fang, a.k.a. Fang Fang, a suspected Chinese spy.

Swalwell resigned from the House of Representatives and ended his California gubernatorial bid in April after two women accused him of raping them. Three other women claim Swalwell made unwanted sexual advances.

About a week before the FBI took Swalwell’s electronics, on Aug. 8, Swalwell boarded a United Airlines flight from Frankfurt, Germany, to Washington, D.C., the Federal Air Marshal Service covertly observed Swalwell to try to obtain the passcodes on his electronic device, Shane Harris of The Atlantic reported, stating:

On August 8, former Representative Eric Swalwell boarded a United Airlines flight from Frankfurt, Germany, to Washington, D.C. He didn’t know it, but federal agents were watching him throughout the nine-hour trip.

The FBI had asked the Federal Air Marshal Service to covertly monitor Swalwell on board and to watch him use his electronic devices, to see whether its officers could visually ascertain his passcodes, according to records I obtained that have not previously been reported on. Air marshals are trained to blend in with other passengers and quietly keep tabs on their subjects, who are usually suspected terrorists or potential hijackers, not politicians.

It is not clear if officials succeeded in obtaining Swalwell’s passcodes.

Several current and former officials told Harris that the FBI’s request was unusual.

“For one thing, the FBI does not usually investigate sexual assault,” Harris wrote. “For another, asking air marshals to obtain a subject’s electronic passcodes is considered out of the ordinary even for traditional subjects of surveillance, one former official said. The agency presumes that requests for assistance from the FBI, which are not unusual, are relevant to a legitimate investigation. But the bureau’s behavior here undermines that confidence, the former official added.”

The Atlantic noted that Swalwell was one of the key villains in the 2023 book, Government Gangsters, by Kash Patel, who is now director of the FBI.

Swalwell has been a longtime critic of President Donald Trump, who has made no secret of his desire to see his political foes prosecuted. Last year, Bill Pulte, Trump’s head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, referred Swalwell to the Department of Justice for a potential criminal investigation for alleged mortgage fraud.

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