Pelosi and McCarthy trade blows over Democratic congressman who once had ties to Chinese spy

Despite few new details emerging about the nature of Congressman Eric Swalwell’s relationship with a woman who has since been discovered as a Chinese spy, House party leaders have continued trading blows over whether the California Democrat has been compromised.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said it would be “wrong” for Speaker Nancy Pelosi to keep Mr Swalwell in his post on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence — whose members have access to the highest levels of government information — if she knew about Mr Swalwell’s association with the Chinese woman previously.

“He's a national security threat,” the Republican leader said at a press conference on Thursday.

“I will tell you as a leader [who receives similarly sensitive briefings], the Intel Committee is treated differently. Why? Because those who serve on Intel get information that [other] members do not,” Mr McCarthy said.

When Axios first reported that the supposed Chinese spy, a young woman named Fang Fang or Christine Fang, helped fundraise for Mr Swalwell’s 2014 re-election campaign, the congressman released a statement saying he had not seen her for six years.

“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,” the congressman’s office told Axios.

In the mid-2010s, Ms Fang had struck up sexual or romantic relationships with at least two mayors of Midwestern US cities, Axios reported. Some such encounters were recorded by the FBI, which was surveilling Ms Fang.

Those relationships have led conservative pundits such as Fox News’ Tucker Carlson and former Trump administration adviser Sebastian Gorka to insinuate Mr Swalwell’s relationship with Ms Fang was also sexual in nature, although there has been no public evidence for such accusations.

Dozens — sometimes hundreds — of people work and volunteer in and around serious congressional campaigns, and it is unclear how much direct access, if any, Ms Fang had to the congressman.

She did manage to successfully place an intern in his congressional office, Axios reported.

In 2015, federal investigators gave Mr Swalwell a “defensive briefing” about Ms Fang’s activities and her ties with Chinese intelligence. His campaign subsequently severed all ties with her.

Pelosi is standing by her fellow California Democrat, and questioning Mr McCarthy's messaging on the issue.

"I don't have any concerns with Mr Swalwell," she told reporters on Thursday.

“In terms of Mr Swalwell, in the spring of 2015, the leadership of the House and the committees were informed that overtures were being made to members of Congress,” Ms Pelosi said. “When that was made known to members of Congress, it was over.”

She blasted the House GOP leader for trying to make the matter into a scandal, mocking him for going on television and asking of she and other Democratic leaders, “When did they know?”

Mr McCarthy, she claimed, "was briefed at the same moment."

"We knew when they knew," she said of House Republican leaders.