The Daily BS • Bo Snerdley Cuts Through It!
The Daily BS • Bo Snerdley Cuts Through It!

Get my Daily BS twice-a-day news stack directly to your email.


Video shows Eric Swalwell surrounded by FBI agents after stepping off plane

by

BS BULLETIN:

  • Newly released surveillance video shows former Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell being met by FBI agents at San Francisco International Airport last month as part of a federal criminal investigation.
  • Agents served Swalwell with a search warrant and seized a white Apple iPhone, charging equipment and a MacBook Pro, according to an inventory filed with the warrant.
  • The investigation stems from sexual misconduct and assault allegations Swalwell has denied. He has not been charged with a crime.

Eric Swalwell stepped off a plane in San Francisco last month and discovered that somebody was waiting for him.

The FBI.

Newly obtained surveillance video released Monday night provides the first public look at the dramatic Aug. 15 encounter at San Francisco International Airport, where federal agents served the former Democratic congressman with a search warrant and seized his electronic devices.

The footage, obtained by the California Post, shows Swalwell dressed casually in a black sweatshirt, hat and sneakers as several agents meet him at his gate.

There doesn’t appear to be any shouting, tackling or Hollywood-style perp walk.

Swalwell appears calm and cooperative as he talks with the agents while passengers continue walking past.

But then comes the long walk.

Video shows Swalwell, carrying a backpack and pulling a roller bag, being escorted through the airport, up an escalator and eventually into a hallway marked “restricted area.”

He then disappears into a room with several people.

Court records fill in what happened next.

Agents served Swalwell with the warrant at approximately 8:25 p.m. and took a white Apple iPhone, charging cable, wall adapter and MacBook Pro, according to the property inventory filed with the warrant.

Swalwell was given a copy of the warrant and an inventory of the seized property and was allowed to leave. He was not arrested.

The airport encounter wasn’t the end of it.

Federal agents executed another search warrant the following day at Swalwell’s Washington, D.C., residence and seized additional potential evidence, according to previous reports.

CBS News reported that the searches are part of a criminal investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct involving the former congressman. The Washington Post reported that federal authorities are examining whether Swalwell used his government position to deprive someone of constitutional rights.

CNN previously described the FBI’s involvement as a “big development,” reporting that investigators obtained a search warrant after establishing probable cause to a judge.

Swalwell has denied the underlying allegations against him.

The former seven-term congressman resigned from the House and abandoned his campaign for California governor in April after multiple women accused him of sexual misconduct. Two women have accused him of rape.

He has not been charged with any crime.

The airport seizure was first reported last month, so the fact that agents took Swalwell’s devices isn’t new.

Seeing it happen is.

And the newly released footage turns what had been words in a court filing into a rather memorable picture: Swalwell gets off his flight. The FBI is waiting.

MY QUICK TAKE

There is something about an airport that makes every bad day worse.

Lost luggage? Bad.

Canceled flight? Worse.

Walk off the jetway and find a collection of FBI agents waiting to take your phone and laptop?

That’s going to be difficult to beat.

The serious part is serious: these are allegations, Swalwell denies them, and he has not been charged.

But politically, the video is brutal. A man who spent years as one of television’s most enthusiastic commentators on investigations of Donald Trump is now starring in surveillance footage of his own encounter with federal investigators.

DBS WIRE SOURCES

today’s hot news