Eric Swalwell, the Bay Area congressman and candidate for California governor, spent more than $300,000 in campaign funds on private attorneys who specialize in white-collar criminal defense and employment law.
Between 2016 and 2023, Swalwell's congressional campaign made 44 payments to Bay Area-based law firm Coblentz Patch Duffy & Bass LLC totaling $305,118. According to federal campaign finance records, the payments range between $250 up to $35,623. KCRA 3 was the first to report the payments on Tuesday.
In a statement to KCRA 3, a spokesman for Swalwell's campaign said the payments were for legal guidance amid President Donald Trump's "retaliatory investigations" into the congressman "that have put his family and staff at risk."
President Trump was in office for four of the seven years' worth of payments.
When asked for a specific example of the retaliatory investigations, the campaign pointed to 2018 when Trump's Department of Justice reportedly secretly obtained Swalwell's private records. Also, during the payment time period, the House Ethics Committee in 2021 launched an investigation into Swalwell's interactions with Christine Fang, a suspected Chinese spy. The committee dropped the investigation in 2023.
California U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff, who at the time was a congressman, also had his information secretly obtained during the reported DOJ sweep in 2018 and has also been considered an outspoken critic of the president. Campaign finance records show he did not...
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