Former Rep. Eric Swalwell had just walked off a plane at San Francisco International Airport wearing a hat and a hoodie when a team of FBI agents closed in and seized his iPhone and MacBook Pro. Surveillance footage of the August encounter captures the whole thing from above — the approach, the surround, the collection of devices.
The following morning, federal agents executed a second search warrant at his Washington, D.C. home. More devices taken.
He wasn't arrested. But in the span of 48 hours, the FBI left him with considerably less than he'd arrived with.
The seizures are part of a federal civil-rights investigation launched by the Justice Department in April 2026 — the same month Swalwell resigned from Congress rather than face a formal vote to expel him. The probe centers on allegations from at least six women accusing him of sexual misconduct, assault, and the use of congressional power to facilitate those offenses. The federal statute at the center of the investigation prohibits government officials from using their official authority to deprive another person of their civil rights. The allegation isn't merely that Swalwell committed assault. It's that he did it as a congressman.
One of those six accusers is Lonna Drewes, a former model and fashion software company owner based in Beverly Hills. Drewes described three encounters with Swalwell in 2018. She said she "knew he was married at the time and that his wife was pregnant." On the third encounter: "I believe he drugged my drink. He raped me, and he choked me. And while he was choking me, I lost consciousness. And I thought I died."
A former congressional staffer alleged two separate assaults — both times while she was intoxicated and unable to consent. At least three additional women have come forward with allegations of unwanted sexual advances and unsolicited explicit messages, including nude photographs sent without consent. Lisa Bloom, the attorney representing Drewes, issued a public statement: "I represent a brave Eric Swalwell accuser... We call upon him to resign from Congress and the governor's race."
He resigned from Congress in April. The governor's race remains on his calendar.
Now, about that hoodie. Swalwell walked through SFO in a hat pulled low — the universal airport costume of someone who'd rather not be seen. Federal agents, it turns out, are not fooled by casual athleisure. The surveillance footage caught all of it anyway.
Watch the surveillance video footage for yourself
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The broader context here is a man who spent years on the House Intelligence Committee — one of the most sensitive perches in Congress — while under documented scrutiny for his relationship with Christine Fang, a suspected Chinese intelligence operative. That relationship became public in 2020 and raised serious questions about whether Swalwell had been compromised. He was never charged. House Democratic leadership never removed him from the committee. He stayed, kept his clearances, sat in classified briefings, and went on cable news to lecture the country about national security threats.
Now the FBI has his phone.
A man who positioned himself as a national security hawk while a suspected Chinese spy maintained access to his circle. Who held a seat on the intelligence committee with full knowledge of America's most sensitive secrets. Whose devices are now in the hands of the same federal investigators he spent years performatively praising when they were targeting someone else.
Swalwell has not been charged with a crime. Two search warrants don't guarantee an indictment.
But six accusers, two federal raids in 48 hours, a resignation timed to outrun an expulsion vote, and a governor's campaign still somehow running make for a picture that's hard to frame charitably.
He spent years telling Americans what a threat to democracy looks like. The FBI found him at baggage claim in a hoodie.
