From Feme Fetals to Farts

Democrat Eric Swallwell is famous for his on-camera farts in the halls of Congress. Impressionable people were clapping from both directions for the full length of the hall.  Remarkable and embarrassing as flatulence “heard round the world” could be, there are even more faux pas in the Swallwell quiver.

An alleged Chinese spy operating in California's Bay Area during the Obama Administration got so close to Representative Swalwell federal investigators had to step in to alert the Congressman.  Could he be that stupid?

The suspected foreign agent, Christine Fang, "targeted up-and-coming local politicians in the Bay Area who had the potential to make it big on the national stage" as part of a years-long operation run by China's main civilian spy agency between 2011 and 2015,"  reported by Axios Publishing.

She first came into contact with Swalwell in her role as the head of two different student groups at California State University East Bay, where she enrolled in 2011.   Using her position in the groups, Fang gained access to political events and fundraisers for several prominent Democrats in the area including Eric the Farter.

Fang became closest to Swalwell of all her contacts, Axios reported, and by 2014, had "developed close ties" with his Congressional office. She worked as a "bundler" for him and other local candidates, helping him connect with big donors and deepening his ties with target communities, and even successfully planted an intern in his office.

Then in 2015, "amid a widening counterintelligence probe, Federal investigators became alarmed by Fang's behavior and activities.  They alerted Swalwell to their concerns with a defensive briefing,"

"Swalwell cut all ties to Fang, according to a U.S. intelligence official, and he has not been accused of any wrongdoing," the report added, but the error in judgment remains and is it surprising as Eric was a leading paranoiac during the years of the “Russia, Russia, Russia” investigation during which Eric followed Representative Adam Schiff around like a puppy in an embarrassing way.

Christine Fang's targeting of Swalwell reveals China's long-game strategy of embedding people with politicians before they reach the national stage in hopes of influencing them to take pro-Beijing policies later.  

Swalwell was elected to Congress in 2012 and in 2015 was assigned to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, serving as the lead Democrat on the subcommittee on CIA oversight, a key position that would be of interest to Chinese intelligence.

The report added: "Even though U.S. officials do not believe Fang received or passed on classified information, the case 'was a big deal, because there were some really, really sensitive people that were caught up' in the intelligence network, a current senior U.S. intelligence official said.

Axios asked Swalwell for a statement on the matter.  He replied: "Rep. Swalwell, long ago, provided information about this person whom he met more than eight years ago, and whom he hasn't seen in nearly six years to the FBI. To protect information that might be classified, he will not participate in your story."  While an artful dodge, it is a dodge in any case.

Sometime in 2015, Catherine Fang abruptly left the United States without telling anyone. Officials believe Chinese authorities called off her covert duties and had her return to China. 

In addition to her connections to Bay Area politicians, Fang developed romantic or sexual relationships with at least two unnamed Middlewestern Democrat mayors, apparently on  a slumming gag, with one of the sexual encounters observed by licentious FBI agents who again proved the FBI is not what we thought it to be even if founder J. F. Hoover was famous for cross-dressing!  America have gone from feme fetals to farts.

Adrian Vance