Swalwell Past Romance Revealed In FBI Files

Sign up HERE for our DC Insider newsletter if you want the real scoop on what is rocking Washington and rattling the White House. See more Daily Mail on Google and save us as a Preferred Source. Eric Swalwell once dated Katie Miller, who is now married to Stephen Miller, the top deputy to Donald Trump. This long-buried romance has reportedly surfaced at the heart of the fight over the FBI's 'Fang Fang' files. Lawyers for the disgraced former Democratic lawmaker brought up the relationship while battling to stop the Justice Department from making public its investigative file on his ties to suspected Chinese spy Christine Fang, according to the Sources Say newsletter.

Fang fled to China in 2015 as the FBI closed in. She spent years cozying up to rising California Democrats, helping bundle donations for Swalwell's 2014 re-election campaign and even placing an intern in his congressional office. Swalwell severed all ties and cooperated with investigators after agents warned him about her in a defensive briefing, and the probe ended without charges. But the scandal has dogged him since it burst into public view in 2020.

As the FBI pushed to release its investigative files on the matter earlier this year, Swalwell's legal team reportedly claimed that the Trump administration publicizing the documents would look like a punitive bid to weaponize the department against him. Miller told Sources Say that she had no idea her history with Swalwell had ever been raised with the Justice Department. She was 22 and an intern when the decade-old relationship began, a source familiar with the matter told the Daily Mail. The pair have not spoken or seen each other for years.

The romance fizzled out long before she got together with her now-husband of six years, one of Donald Trump's most trusted aides with whom she shares four children. Miller cut her teeth as an intern and congressional staffer on Capitol Hill, rising to senior roles in the Trump administration, including working for Elon Musk, before leaving to launch her own podcast. She has since become one of Swalwell's fiercest critics, regularly ripping him on X over his ethics and conduct while leaping to her husband's defense.

The battle over the files erupted in March when FBI Director Kash Patel signaled he was preparing to release records from the long-closed probe into Swalwell's contacts with Fang, as the Washington Post first reported. Swalwell, then the frontrunner in California's governor's race, reportedly fired back with a cease-and-desist letter blasting the move as a naked attempt to smear him and torpedo his campaign, according to Sources Say. He later quit the gubernatorial race amid sexual misconduct allegations in April, which he has denied.

Behind the scenes, Justice Department lawyers serving under then-Attorney General Pam Bondi went back and forth with Swalwell's attorney about the file, including discussions aimed at keeping it sealed, according to Sources Say. Ultimately, the Swalwell documents were not released. And Bondi ultimately refused to green-light the release of the Swalwell documents.

Pam Bondi told the Daily Mail she never spoke with Matt Gaetz or Swalwell about a Chinese spy matter, nor did she order anyone at the Department of Justice to withhold files. Her statement came after a request for comment regarding this article.

Trump fired her in April because he believed she warned Swalwell about the administration's plan to release documents. The Daily Mail first reported that belief.

Swalwell denied receiving any warning during an MSNBC interview following his departure. He insisted the attorney general did not tip anyone off.

Kristi Noem and Bondi stood in the Oval Office when Trump dismissed them both. Noem left as Homeland Security Secretary, while Bondi departed as Attorney General.

When pressed on allegations involving exchanges between Swalwell's team and department lawyers, sources say Bondi claimed her only contact with him involved death threats against his wife and children.

The Daily Mail asked the FBI, Miller, Swalwell, and Bondi for comment.