Republican lawmakers urge House Speaker Pelosi to remove Rep. Swalwell from Intelligence Committee

Seventeen Republican lawmakers in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday called for Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell to be ousted from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

In their letter, the GOP legislators referenced recent reporting by Axios regarding the California congressman and a suspected Chinese intelligence operative.  

The woman, a Chinese national, engaged in fundraising activity for Swalwell's campaign in 2014, the outlet reported, citing unnamed sources. The report said that there was at least one intern the woman recommended who got placed in the congressman's Washington office.

"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," a statement from Swalwell's office said, reported Axios. "To protect information that might be classified, he will not participate in your story."

The outlet reported that Swalwell was given a defensive briefing in 2015 by federal investigators about their concerns pertaining to the Chinese woman. "Swalwell immediately cut off all ties to Fang, according to a current U.S. intelligence official, and he has not been accused of any wrongdoing," Axios said.

Republicans in their Tuesday letter urged Pelosi, a California Democrat, to take Swalwell off of the House committee:

"We write to you today out of concern with Congressman Eric Swalwell's reported, close contacts with a Chinese Communist Party spy recently reported by Axios. Because of Rep. Swalwell's position on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, his close interactions with Chinese intelligence services, however unintentional they may be, are an unacceptable national security risk," they declared in the letter. "HPSCI handles some of the most sensitive information our government possesses — information critical to our national defense. As such, we urge you to immediately remove Rep. Swalwell from his position on the House Intelligence Committee."

“Rep. Swalwell withheld information for five years from the House Intelligence Committee about an ongoing Chinese espionage operation targeted at him and his own colleagues," the letter said. "Obviously, Rep. Swalwell’s interactions with a Chinese spy were more dangerous and unusual than AG Session’s meetings with a Russian diplomat. But to make matters worse, Rep. Swalwell kept this information to himself while repeatedly using his position on HPSCI to peddle damaging and baseless conspiracies about President Donald Trump’s unproven ties to Russia for years and still refuses to comment fully on the extent and nature of his relationship with the Chinese Communist Party spy exposed in Axios’ bombshell report.”

Pelosi last week said that in 2015 House and committee leaders "were informed that overtures from a Chinese person, was, were being made to members of Congress. When that was made known to the members of Congress it was over. You know, that was the end of any communication with those people," she said.