Eric Swalwell walked away from Congress in April hoping the scandal would walk away with him. On Tuesday morning, the FBI showed up at a billionaire’s door in Beverly Hills instead.
Federal authorities raided the Beverly Hills mansion of billionaire Stephen Cloobeck in connection with the investigation into the disgraced former California Democrat, Fox News reports. At least two dozen agents executed the search warrant at roughly 6 a.m. local time and combed through the massive property for several hours.
Several people were led out of the house in handcuffs, though all of them were released soon after. Authorities have not said what, if anything, they found. Cloobeck was not home at the time, and his attorneys said he “continues to have faith in this country’s judicial process.”
Fox News did not say how Cloobeck fits into the Swalwell case. What is on the record: Cloobeck was arrested earlier this year in a separate matter, charged with attempting to influence witnesses in a criminal case against his fiancée.
This probe keeps escalating. In August, the FBI searched Swalwell’s Washington, D.C., home and seized his electronic devices at San Francisco International Airport, an operation sources tied to a sexual misconduct investigation. Swalwell was not arrested or detained, and he has not been charged with any crime.
The allegations themselves are ugly. At least five women, including a former staffer, have accused Swalwell of sexual misconduct or rape. He has called the claims “flat out false” and vowed to fight them “with everything.” The pressure still forced him out. He abandoned his run for California governor and resigned from the House in April under the threat of expulsion, ending 13 years in Congress.
“I will fight the serious false allegations made against me,” Swalwell wrote when he resigned. “However, I must take responsibility and ownership for the mistakes I did make.”
The raid also lands one day after the White House released declassified FBI records on his relationship with Christine “Fang Fang” Fang, a suspected Chinese intelligence operative. According to those records, Swalwell told FBI agents he had “physical relations” with Fang on a handful of occasions. Fang had suspected ties to China’s Ministry of State Security, and her parents were reportedly considered known Chinese intelligence officers.
Let that sink in. A man who spent 13 years in Congress told the FBI he had physical relations with a suspected Chinese spy, and Americans are only now reading it in declassified files.
This raid is a window into what happens when Washington protects its own for too long: the questions eventually get asked by agents carrying warrants. Swalwell says he is innocent, he has not been charged, and he is entitled to his day in court. But two dozen federal agents at a Beverly Hills mansion on a Tuesday morning make one thing clear. This investigation is not going away.
Source: foxnews.com