SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
Federal agents have ramped up their investigation into former Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell over allegations of sexual misconduct. Agents stopped Swalwell at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday and took his electronic devices. Then on Sunday, agents searched his home in Washington, D.C. A person familiar with the matter confirmed the search to NPR on condition of anonymity to be able to discuss an ongoing investigation. Several women have accused Swalwell of a range of allegations from making nonconsensual sexual advances to rape. Swalwell dropped out of the California governor's race and resigned his House seat in April. He denied any wrongdoing but has admitted mistakes in judgment.
For some legal analysis on the investigation and the possible case against Swalwell, we've called Andrew Weissmann. He was a lead prosecutor in the Robert Mueller investigation that looked into Russian interference in the 2016 election and Russia's alleged ties with the Trump campaign. He also served as chief of the fraud section in the Department of Justice and earlier as the general counsel of the FBI. Andrew Weissmann, good morning.
ANDREW WEISSMANN: Good morning.
PFEIFFER: Big-picture question. For the Feds to escalate this to this degree, how significant of a step is that?
WEISSMANN: Well, there's sort of a small and big way of looking at it. From a small perspective, it's worth noting that this is something that the federal government needs to have gotten judicial approval before they can do a search of a location, including electronics. But big picture, what is sort of interesting here is that you have the federal government taking these allegations so seriously that they're not leaving this just to state investigations, but they're doing at the federal level. And I think a lot of listeners might be wondering why they're taking this so seriously when there have been lots of allegations with respect to other politicians and candidates where you do not see the federal government having taken these steps.
PFEIFFER: Yes. And so why would the feds be likely to go after Swalwell in this way, so aggressively, when they haven't with other politicians?
WEISSMANN: One of the claims that Eric Swalwell can make is not that this is entirely a trumped-up investigation, because obviously there are women who have made these serious allegations, but rather that this is a question of selective or vindictive prosecution, because why is he being targeted when other people have not? I don't think, at the end of the day, though, that that is a likely scenario to prevail. But I think it's - on a human level, it is something that I think people can ask themselves.
PFEIFFER: We should note here that Swalwell has been a critic of the Trump administration. He was on the House committee that held Trump responsible for January 6. He's accused the president of using his office to enrich himself. So we have seen a history of Trump targeting his critics. Perhaps it's natural for Swalwell to use as a defense that he's become an unfair Trump target. How fair, if Swalwell were to make that allegation, do you think that is?
WEISSMANN: That seems not terribly fair to me because here, the impetus for the investigation seems clearly to have been the fact that there are women who have made credible allegations of being victimized. It doesn't explain why the government has not acted with respect to other cases. But here, this investigation seems to have been started as a result of external forces and external claims to the Trump administration.
PFEIFFER: You referred to this, but authorities in California and New York already announced their own investigations. And it tends to be more typical for sex crimes to be prosecuted at the state or local level. Why would federal investigators also be looking into this?
WEISSMANN: Well, it is true that there are women who have made these allegations and that it is also true that it is typically prosecuted at the state level. Having said that, there is a federal statute, the civil rights statute 18 USC 242, where somebody who is a federal officer who abuses their position of authority to engage in sexual misconduct can be charged. And in fact, that statute has been used to vindicate victims' rights and the public's right to see somebody held to account if they've done these kinds of allegations.
PFEIFFER: A statute that state prosecutors may not be able to turn to.
WEISSMANN: Exactly.
PFEIFFER: That is former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann. Thanks for your time.
WEISSMANN: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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