Former Congressman Eric Swalwell is facing potential prosecutions in two states and from the federal government, and the FBI has just raided the Los Angeles home of a wealthy developer and donor who had let Swalwell stay with him earlier this year.
It's not clear what the feds were after, or whether Swalwell has stayed at the LA home of donor Stephen Cloobeck since the spring — when Cloobeck claimed to have severed all ties with Swalwell in the wake of multiple sexual misconduct and assault allegations, and the subsequent collapse of Swalwell's political career. But federal agents were at the home in Beverly Hills early Tuesday, as the Associated Press reports.
An FBI spokesperson would only confirm to the AP, "Early this morning the FBI conducted an operation in the Los Angeles region related to an ongoing criminal investigation. We have no further comment."
The federal investigation into Swalwell will likely move quickly given President Trump's penchant for seeking revenge against his critics and enemies, and while he was in office Swalwell was a vocal Trump critic. He also served as one of the House prosecutors in Trump's second impeachment in January 2021.
Federal agents detained Swalwell at SFO in August, reportedly seizing all of his electronic devices, on the same day that agents were reportedly raiding his home in Washington, DC.
Among the Department of Justice's concerns about Swalwell is the case of the Chinese honeypot spy scheme involving an operative named Fang Fang, whom Swalwell met when he was first running for Congress in 2012. As the Trump administration revealed just days before Swalwell's detention at SFO, Swalwell had admitted to the FBI a decade ago that he had had sex with Fang Fang, but said that one time it happened after he had taken Ambien and she came to his home unannounced.
Earlier this month, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office said that investigators there were still looking into allegations made by Loona Drewes, who came forward earlier this year saying that Swalwell had drugged and raped her in an LA hotel room in 2018, at one point choking her until she lost consciousness, she said. The case was handed over to the DA's office in late September and charges have not yet been filed.
The district attorney in New York City is looking into similar allegations made by a woman there about an assault in a Manhattan hotel room in 2024.
Swalwell's career came to a full halt in April in the span of several days, following allegations that came first from a former staffer who said she had been assaulted, and likely drugged, by Swalwell on two separate occasions — including the 2024 assault in Manhattan. Those assault allegations, first reported by the SF Chronicle, were followed by more allegations from several other women, including Drewes.
While Swalwell has maintained his innocence, he ended his campaign for California governor — a race that he was leading — and resigned from Congress within days of the allegations surfacing, and has been lying low ever since.
Neither Swalwell nor Cloobeck have commented on the latest FBI raid.
Previously: Former Congressman Eric Swalwell Did, In Fact, Have Sex With That Chinese Spy
