By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2026-08-07 23:50:45 | Updated at 2026-08-09 04:50:42
1 day ago
Eric Swalwell once dated Katie Miller, the woman now married to Trump's top deputy Stephen Miller, and the long-buried romance has reportedly surfaced at the center of the fight over the FBI's 'Fang Fang' files.
Lawyers for the disgraced former Democratic lawmaker brought up the relationship as they battled to stop the Justice Department from making public its investigative file on his ties to suspected Chinese spy Christine Fang, according to the Sources Say newsletter.
Fang, who fled to China in 2015 as the FBI closed in, spent years cozying up to rising California Democrats, helping bundle donations for Swalwell's 2014 re-election campaign and even placing an intern in his congressional office.
Swalwell severed all ties and cooperated with investigators after agents warned him about her in a defensive briefing, and the probe ended without charges. But the scandal has dogged him since it burst into public view in 2020.
As the FBI pushed to release its investigative files on the matter earlier this year, Swalwell's legal team reportedly claimed that the Trump administration publicizing the documents would look like a punitive bid to weaponize the department against him.
Miller told Sources Say that she had no idea her history with Swalwell had ever been raised with the Justice Department.
She was 22 and an intern when the decade-old relationship began, a source familiar with the matter told the Daily Mail. The pair have not spoken or seen each other for years.
The romance fizzled out long before she got together with her now-husband of six years, one of Donald Trump's most trusted aides with whom she shares four children.
Miller was 22 and an intern when the decade-old relationship began, a source familiar with the matter told the Daily Mail. The pair have not spoken or seen each other for years
Swalwell's legal team reportedly claimed that publicizing the Fang Fang (R) documents would look like a punitive bid to weaponize the department against him
The romance fizzled out long before Miller got together with her now-husband, one of Donald Trump's most trusted aides with whom she shares four children
Miller cut her teeth as an intern and congressional staffer on Capitol Hill, rising to senior roles in the Trump administration, including working for Elon Musk, before leaving to launch her own podcast.
She has since become one of Swalwell's fiercest critics, regularly ripping him on X over his ethics and conduct while leaping to her husband's defense.
The battle over the files erupted in March, when FBI Director Kash Patel signaled he was preparing to release records from the long-closed probe into Swalwell's contacts with Fang, as the Washington Post first reported.
Swalwell, then the frontrunner in California's governor's race, reportedly fired back with a cease-and-desist letter blasting the move as a naked attempt to smear him and torpedo his campaign, according to Sources Say.
He later quit the gubernatorial race amid sexual misconduct allegations in April, which he has denied.
Behind the scenes, Justice Department lawyers serving under then-Attorney General Pam Bondi went back and forth with Swalwell's attorney about the file, including discussions aimed at keeping it sealed, according to Sources Say. Ultimately, the Swalwell documents were not released.
And Bondi ultimately refused to green-light the release of the Swalwell documents. In response to a request for comment on this article, Bondi told the Daily Mail: 'I NEVER had any conversations with Swalwell nor his legal team regarding the Chinese Spy nor did I direct anyone at DOJ not to release files.'
As the Daily Mail first revealed, Bondi was ousted in April in part because Trump believed she had tipped Swalwell off about the administration's plan to release the files.
Swalwell has flatly denied getting any warning, insisting to MSNBC during an interview after her firing: 'The attorney general did not tip us off.'
As the Daily Mail first revealed, Bondi was ousted in April in part because Trump believed she had tipped Swalwell off about the administration's plan to release the files. She denies the claim
Fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Attorney General Pam Bondi in the Oval Office with Trump
Pressed on those allegations and on the exchanges between Swalwell's camp and department lawyers, Bondi reportedly shot back to Sources Say that her only contact with him concerned 'death threats to his wife and children.'
The Daily Mail reached out to the FBI, Miller, Swalwell, and Bondi for comment.
