BYRON YORK: The Democrats’ Eric Swalwell Problem.

House Democratic leaders are trying to keep the espionage scandal surrounding Intelligence Committee member Rep. Eric Swalwell under tight control. But it’s going to be an uphill battle. Republicans are pushing harder and harder to learn more about Swalwell’s relationship with Chinese spy Christine Fang. And the Democrats’ strongest ally — the New York Times, which has averted its eyes and so far refused to publish even one word about the matter — can’t hold out forever.

Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is demanding the FBI brief all members of the Intelligence Committee on what the bureau knows about the relationship between Swalwell and Fang. That relationship began some time after Fang arrived in the U.S. in 2011, before Swalwell was elected to Congress, and continued through 2015, by which time Swalwell had won election to the House and Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi picked him for a coveted spot on the Intelligence Committee.

U.S. authorities had Fang under surveillance and apparently picked up information about her having some sort of personal relationship with a member of Congress — Swalwell. In 2015, the FBI met with Swalwell — again, a member of the Intelligence Committee — to inform him that Fang was a spy. Swalwell says he immediately cut off all contact with Fang, who quickly left the U.S. in mid-2015.

In the next year, 2016, Swalwell started accusing the Trump campaign of collusion with Russia. He proposed a 9/11-style commission to investigate the alleged influence of Russian spy agencies with candidate Donald Trump and top members of his campaign. No one in the public knew it at the time, but Swalwell had just recently had some sort of involvement with a spy himself — one the FBI had actually warned him about. As 2016 and 2017 went on, Swalwell became one of the leading voices attacking President Trump and his Republican defenders on the debunked Russia issue.

Question: By pushing the divisive, destructive — and false — “Russian collusion” narrative, was Swalwell doing the bidding of the Chinese government, as it worked to destabilize the United States?