Fang-Fang, AKA ‘Rusty Thumbs’ comes back to haunt disgraced Swalwell

[WASHINGTON] A government official with working knowledge of the matter told reporters Sunday that the FBI recruited the notorious Fang Fang, also known as Christine Fang, as a possible confidential human source, before treating her as an espionage suspect, and immunizing her friend and companion Rep. Eric Swalwell (D.-Calif.) with a defensive briefing.

“Congressman Swalwell was compromised by Fang on three different things: a sexual relationship, illegal, illicit money that went to his campaign through her straw donations that she arranged,” the official said. “Then, placing interns in his congressional campaign and election campaigns and potentially using him to move other foreign interns into other congressional offices.”

For Swalwell, the documents released Monday by the Government Transparency Task Force, are a miserable coda to a political career that came crashing to earth after a slew of women came forward with allegations of relentless sexual misconduct.

The son of a one-time Iowa police chief was the leading candidate to become the Golden State’s governor before those allegations, some leading to criminal investigations, suspending his gubernatorial campaign April 12, and the next day, he resigned from Congress.

Fang, who was given the code name “Rusty Thumbs,” was hired by a front company set up by the FBI to cloak its involvement in her auditions.

The official said the criminal investigation into Fang began in 2014, after it became apparent that she was acting as an agent of the Chinese Communist Party in its wide-ranging operation to infiltrate and manipulate Democratic Party organizations in northern and central California.

In March 2015, Swalwell was given a defensive briefing, which is the FBI’s way to protect corrupt politicians and others, by sitting them down and telling them that they have been the victim of manipulation. Once the individual has been briefed, their actions are then open for legal jeopardy, but everything that happened before the briefing is written of as the deeds of a foolish victim.

His briefing was three months after he became a member of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, but oddly there was still some contact through family.

In March 2021, House Republicans removed Swalwell from the Intel Committee.

Fang remained Facebook friends with the congressman’s father and brother until a Dec. 9, 2020, story ran based on leaked documents about her activities in the U.S. In 2016, Fang liked a photo of the congressman posted by his brother, and she also liked a photo of the former Dublin, California, city councilor meeting with a ChiCom diplomat at a Chinese consulate.

After the FBI soured on their Chinese recruiting target, its agents eventually raided her apartment, but, alas, she was gone, the official said.

Once the FBI determined Fang had returned to Red China, the Justice Department dropped its active case against her, the official said.

As for Swalwell, he still has to resolve the criminal cases against him, as well as his possible mortgage fraud related to his $1.2 million Washington home, which he claimed was his primary residence while he was a California congressman.

Of course, there is also a babysitter issue, too.

The Homeland Security Department is investigating his Brazilian nanny, who may have, checks notes, an awkward immigration status.