Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, raised what he called “fundamental questions” surrounding allegations that Rep. Eric Swalwell had been compromised by a suspected Chinese spy.
Jordan told “Sunday Morning Futures” in an exclusive interview that he wants to find out what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., knew “when she put Rep. Swalwell on the intel committee.”
“She [Pelosi] gets all kinds of briefings,” he told host Maria Bartiromo. “She gets briefings I don’t get. She gets briefings you don’t get certainly, so what did she know when she made that selection?”
On Thursday, speaking with FOX Business’ “Mornings with Maria” Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., expressed similar concerns and explained why he believes Swalwell, D-Calif., should be removed from the House Intelligence Committee, noting that the Democratic congressman “has access to information that could hurt us” given his alleged “relationship with the Communist Party of China.”
The Republican senator warned that Swalwell’s “got our most important secrets” because he serves on the House Intelligence Committee.
“This is so basic. Nancy Pelosi cannot allow him to stay on the intelligence committee,” Scott said one day after he sent a letter to the House speaker calling for Swalwell’s removal from the committee.
A yearlong Axios investigation revealed links between Swalwell and suspected Chinese spy Fang Fang, aka Christine Fang. The report indicated Fang targeted up-and-coming local politicians, including those who had the potential to become national figures.
Swalwell has been keeping quiet about his past relationship with Fang, whose relationships with at least two Midwestern mayors reportedly turned sexual. When asked about the nature of Swalwell’s relationship with Fang, his office declined to comment.
According to Axios, federal investigators gave Swalwell a defensive briefing in 2015 during which they alerted him to their concerns over Fang. An intelligence official told the news outlet that Swalwell cut ties with her soon after.
On Wednesday, Pelosi’s spokesman Drew Hammill said the House speaker has “full confidence” in Swalwell and his ability to serve on the Intelligence Committee. He told Fox News that the speaker will back Swalwell’s continued service on the committee, which has access to classified material and oversees activities of the U.S. intelligence community.
Pelosi appointed Swalwell to the secretive panel, which led the impeachment investigation into President Trump, in 2015.
SWALWELL EXTENDS HIS SILENCE ON INTERACTIONS WITH SUSPECTED SPY FROM CHINA
On Sunday, Jordan told Baritromo the other “key question” he has is, “Why is it that it’s always the Democrats who get defensive briefings?”
“We know Senator [Dianne] Feinstein got a briefing when there was a relationship that her office had with a Chinese spy,” Jordan said. “We know Rep. Swalwell got a briefing based on what we’ve learned from the Axios story and other stories this week, but [it] never seems Republicans get defensive briefings.”
He stressed that Republicans “get set up.”
He pointed to a meeting that occurred Jan. 6, 2017, at Trump Tower in New York City when then President-elect Trump was briefed by a number of officials, including now-fired FBI Director James Comey and John Brennan, who was then director of the CIA.
Jordan said Comey “gives him supposedly a defensive briefing, but in essence it was a set up so they could go leak the fact that they talked to the president about the dossier.”
Jordan was referencing the unverified anti-Trump dossier authored by British ex-spy Christopher Steele, who compiled information for the controversial dossier on behalf of Fusion GPS — the firm that was hired to conduct opposition research funded by the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign through law firm Perkins Coie.
The dossier contains claims about alleged ties between Trump and Russia that served as the basis for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants obtained against former Trump campaign aide Carter Page.
Fox News reported in July that the primary source of Steele’s election reporting was not a current or former Russian official, but a non-Russian based contract employee of Steele’s firm. Fox News also reported in July that the information the source provided Steele that served as the basis of the dossier was “second- and third-hand information and rumors at best.”
“So that is another, I think, key distinction that we need to figure out; Why is that always the case? Democrats get theses defensive briefings [and] instead President Trump gets set up by Jim Comey [on] Jan. 6, 2017, when he talks to him about the dossier,” Jordan told Bartiromo on Sunday.
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Fox News’ Marisa Schultz, Lucas Mikelioni, Brooke Singman and Ronn Blitzer contributed to this report.