Svalwell was named in the Axios report, which describes what US officials believe was a political intelligence operation carried out by China’s main civilian intelligence agency between 2011 and 2015. The woman who was at the center of the operation, Fang Pang or Christine Fong, took part in the fundraising campaign for Swallowell’s 2014 re-election campaign and helped place a coach in the Democratic Party office in California, Axios said. But as stated in the initial report, Swallowwell was never suspected of committing any wrongdoing, he told CNN on Wednesday. “I was told about this person and I volunteered to help,” he told CNN’s Jim Chiuto. “All I did was cooperate, the FBI said yesterday.” Swallowell, who serves on the House Investigative Committee, was very vocal during President Donald Trump’s indictment last year, questioning the timing of the story in light of the fact that the investigation took place several years ago, which raised the possibility of a politically harmful leak. “At the same time this story was leaked, it was time I was indicted by the House Investigation and Judicial Committees,” he said, noting the fact that the Axios report was prepared after a year-long investigation. If this is a country where people critical of the President are going to have law enforcement information against themselves, it is not a country that any of us would want to live with. I hope that an inquiry will be held into who leaked this information, “Swallowell added. Trump’s politically appointed intelligence officer, John Radcliffe, issued a clear warning last week that China was preparing for an” open confrontation with the United States. ” Radcliffe accused the Wall Street Journal of emphasizing “today” and “democracy around the world after World War II.” China targeted dozens of congressmen and congressional aides in this year’s massive influence campaign, but did not name individual lawmakers. Radcliffe said last year that the Chinese government was “engaged in a massive influence campaign targeting dozens of members of Congress and Congress aides” – arguing that Beijing’s efforts had curtailed the efforts of other foreign adversaries and rivals, including Russia. Although the exact details of this influence campaign are highly categorical, the government used a variety of tactics, including bribery and intimidation by a senior national security official. “Our intelligence shows that Beijing invariably leads these kinds of influential activities in the United States. I explained to House and Senate intelligence committees that China is targeting members of Congress with six times the frequency of Russia and 12 times the frequency of Iran,” Radcliffe wrote. Axios insisted Wednesday in a statement that he was concerned that he might have shared important information with a suspected Chinese spy before the FBI was notified, but Svalwell said, “I know I did.” “Axios clarified that no information was shared,” he said. “Those who shared the secret information are the ones who leaked this story.” In addition to Fang’s relations with Swallow, Axios declared that he sought to establish relationships with influential politicians through “campaign fundraising, extensive networking, personal charisma and romance.” But he warns people the same thing as spies. “We need to invest more in our intelligence resources, so there are no people we can do this successfully. In this case, because of the FBI, nothing has happened,” he said. .
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