Former Democratic congressman Eric Swalwell reportedly leveraged a past sexual relationship with Katie Miller, now the wife of top Trump official Stephen Miller, to prevent the FBI from releasing files detailing his contacts with a suspected Chinese intelligence operative.

The congressional blog Sources Say reported Thursday that Swalwell's side told federal officials that making the files public could be seen as weaponizing the Justice Department, and pointed to his "long-concluded sexual relationship" with Miller as a reason the release would create political complications. The files in question detail Swalwell's contacts with Christine Fang, known as "Fang Fang," a suspected Chinese intelligence operative who raised money for him and helped place at least one intern in his congressional office between 2011 and 2015.

The maneuver worked. FBI Director Kash Patel had pressed in early 2026 to release the files, but they were ultimately kept under wraps while Pam Bondi served as attorney general. A longstanding DOJ policy against releasing files that could embarrass a public official when no criminal charges have been filed gave Swalwell's argument institutional cover.

A DOJ spokesperson told the New York Post, "The Department investigates crimes irrespective of politics." But a source familiar with the department said it was "not aware of communications from Swalwell's lawyers regarding Miller's presence in the files." Swalwell declined to comment when reached by the Post.

A Capitol Hill relationship became a political shield

Katie Miller, then Katie Waldman, worked on Capitol Hill as an intern and later as a communications director during her twenties. She and Swalwell were involved before he married his wife Brittany in 2016. Waldman later moved to the executive branch in 2017 and eventually married Stephen Miller, one of President Trump's most prominent advisers.

Years later, Swalwell's legal team found a use for that old relationship. By flagging Miller's connection to the files, Swalwell's side raised the specter that releasing the documents would look like a political hit job, a Trump administration targeting a Democratic rival through his past involvement with a woman now married to one of the president's top officials. Concerns had already been raised that Patel was trying to go after one of Trump's political enemies by pushing for the release.

It was a shrewd play. Swalwell turned what should have been a straightforward counterintelligence transparency question into a political minefield. And it bought him time, time that ran out for other reasons entirely.

More than a dozen women accused Swalwell of assault

In April, more than a dozen women told CNN that Swalwell had raped or sexually assaulted them. The allegations ended his campaign for California governor and forced his resignation from Congress. He has denied all charges.

The accusations did not come from nowhere. Cheyenne Hunt, a former Capitol Hill staffer and political media personality, had begun circulating testimony from women who said they were sexually assaulted by Swalwell. The San Francisco Chronicle then published a detailed report describing accounts of Swalwell pursuing intoxicated women, pressuring employees into intimate situations, and requesting explicit images, Fox News reported.

Hunt put it bluntly on social media: "The Democratic candidate currently leading in the California governor's race has a known history of being predatory towards women."

Swalwell suspended his gubernatorial campaign with a statement that acknowledged personal failings while disputing the most serious claims:

"I am suspending my campaign for Governor. To my family, staff, friends, and supporters, I am deeply sorry for mistakes in judgment I've made in my past."

He also vowed to fight what he called "serious, false allegations." He is now under investigation by both the Manhattan District Attorney's Office and the Justice Department on assault allegations. The pattern of accusations against Democratic political figures has become difficult to ignore, a similar case recently emerged in Maine, where a woman accused Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner of rape.

Katie Miller spoke out, then learned she had been used as a shield

Miller herself weighed in publicly in April, posting on X to express support for the women making allegations against Swalwell. She did not hold back.

"As someone who doesn't normally believe all women, I believe her, and the many lined up behind her. Eric Swalwell's behavior was the worst kept secret on Capitol Hill."

In a separate post, she added: "I'm positive she was not the only intern." She also described herself plainly: "I was an intern working on Capitol Hill."

A source close to Miller told the Post that she was unaware of the DOJ aspect, that Swalwell's lawyers had invoked her name to block the FBI file release, until a reporter informed her. Her public statements supporting the accusers came before she knew she had been used as a bargaining chip in Swalwell's effort to keep his intelligence file sealed.

Fang Fang and the file Swalwell fought to keep closed

Christine Fang operated in Swalwell's orbit from 2011 to 2015, raising campaign funds and embedding at least one intern in his congressional office. The FBI investigated her as a suspected Chinese intelligence operative. When the bureau's probe closed in on her, she fled the country to China.

Swalwell's connection to Fang became public in 2020. He refused to say whether he had a sexual relationship with the suspected spy, claiming it was a matter of national security that he not share further details. Despite the revelation, then-House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi defended Swalwell and helped keep him on the House Intelligence Committee, a panel with access to some of the nation's most sensitive classified information.

That decision now looks even more reckless in hindsight. A congressman who had been cultivated by a suspected foreign intelligence operative was allowed to remain on the committee tasked with overseeing the very agencies investigating that operative. The institutional failure to act was bipartisan in effect, even if the political protection came from one side. Instances of government officials abusing positions of trust are not new, but few cases combine foreign espionage concerns with this level of political self-dealing.

FBI Director Patel was not content to let the matter rest. In early 2026, before the assault allegations became public and while Swalwell was still a leading candidate for governor, Patel pressed to release the FBI files. He was also exploring the possibility of bringing Fang back from China to question her about her relationship with Swalwell.

Swalwell's team moved to block that effort. The argument they deployed, that releasing the files would look like DOJ weaponization, particularly given the Miller connection, proved effective enough to keep the documents sealed. The DOJ's own policy against releasing embarrassing files absent criminal charges gave the argument institutional weight.

A pattern of evasion, not accountability

Step back and look at the full arc. From 2011 to 2015, Swalwell maintained a relationship with a woman the FBI was investigating as a Chinese intelligence asset. When that became public in 2020, his party's leadership shielded him. When the FBI moved to release the files in 2026, he used a past relationship with a woman now connected to the opposing political party to block the release. And when more than a dozen women accused him of sexual assault, he resigned, but only after the political math became impossible.

At every stage, Swalwell found a way to delay accountability. The Chinese spy question was deflected as classified. The FBI files were blocked as weaponization. The assault allegations were denied as false. Each defense served its purpose long enough to keep the next chapter from opening, until the weight of it all collapsed at once. Political downfalls driven by scandal have ended careers across the spectrum, but Swalwell's case stands out for the sheer number of fronts on which he was operating.

The DOJ and Manhattan DA investigations remain open. Swalwell has denied all assault charges. The FBI files on his contacts with Christine Fang remain sealed. And Fang herself remains in China, beyond the reach of American investigators, at least for now.

Prominent Democrats have shown a recurring willingness to rewrite the rules when the rules become inconvenient. Swalwell did not rewrite them. He found the loopholes, exploited the relationships, and trusted that Washington's institutional inertia would do the rest.

When a man's best defense against transparency is that the truth might embarrass too many people on both sides of the aisle, the problem is not the transparency.