March 30, 2026

California candidate for governor Eric Swalwell insisted “the case is closed” at an abrupt news conference — as FBI Director Kash Patel threatens to release investigative files about a suspected Chinese spy who infiltrated his office.

“This case is closed — the bureau said, over 10 years ago, all we did was help,” Swalwell said in brief remarks Monday outside the Phillip Burton Federal Building in San Francisco.

The East Bay rep was surrounded by SEIU union officials as he blasted FBI Director Kash Patel as a “temporary employee” engaged in a “horrendous abuse of power” in digging up the investigative files about Swalwell and Christine Fang, a suspected Chinese Communist Party asset who cultivated ties with Swalwell starting when he was a Dublin city council member.

Fang, also known as “Fang Fang,” was a student at California State University East Bay who began schmoozing Swalwell at events, Axios reported in 2020, even bundling donations for his campaign and recommending interns for his office.

In a plot twist worthy of a daytime soap and a bureaucratic farce, Eric Swalwell confidently declared “the case is closed” on his cozy, decade-old friendship with alleged Chinese spy Fang Fang, all while FBI Director Kash Patel threatens to unveil investigative files that might just rock California’s political boat—and Swalwell’s campaign photoshoot. Surrounded by cheering union pals, Swalwell went full courtroom drama, accusing Patel of being a “temporary employee” wielding “horrendous abuse of power,” because nothing screams “law and order” like calling your own federal investigators unhinged henchmen. Meanwhile, the FBI’s dusty files—compiled under Trump’s watch—hold details including intimate intern recommendations and possibly love lives that would make reality TV blush. So there you have it: a high-stakes gubernatorial showdown where the real weapon might just be the old-fashioned art of denial, served with a side of union-backed indignation and good old-fashioned political theater.

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