The FBI raided a Beverly Hills mansion this week connected to Stephen Cloobeck, the billionaire who dropped $1 million trying to make Eric Swalwell the next governor of California. The raid comes two months after federal agents searched Swalwell's own Washington, D.C. home.
Cloobeck isn't some quiet donor writing checks from the background. He maxed out at $39,200 in direct contributions to Swalwell's gubernatorial campaign and bankrolled the rest through outside spending that pushed his total investment to seven figures. He also funded a $31,000 private trip to France for Swalwell in 2024. That's the kind of generosity that buys more than a thank-you card.
Cloobeck now faces three felony counts of witness intimidation and one misdemeanor count of annoying phone calls. The charges stem from his ex-partner Adva Lavie, who accused Cloobeck of misconduct. Lavie, for her part, has been accused of using dating apps to steal from wealthy men.
Cloobeck has publicly distanced himself from Swalwell. "I am no longer associated with a man that takes advantage of women," he said. "I support women's rights." That's a striking declaration from a man who spent a million dollars propping up Swalwell's political career while five women were accusing the former congressman of sexual misconduct and rape.
FBI records indicate Swalwell's last sexual encounter with Christine Fang — the Chinese intelligence operative known as "Fang Fang" — occurred in March 2015. That spy scandal was supposed to be the rock-bottom moment for Swalwell's credibility. He sat on the House Intelligence Committee while maintaining a relationship with a woman U.S. counterintelligence found was working for Beijing. Democrat leaders didn't remove him. He wasn't censured. He went on cable news and talked about national security like nothing happened.
Now there are five accusers, a billionaire backer catching felony charges, and two FBI raids in the span of a summer. The misconduct allegations against Swalwell haven't produced formal charges against him yet. But the feds don't raid a congressman's home and his top donor's mansion in Beverly Hills because they're curious about the landscaping.
The Fang Fang affair was treated as a partisan curiosity — something Republicans mentioned and Democrats ignored. The accusers were treated as a distraction from Swalwell's gubernatorial ambitions. Cloobeck's million-dollar investment was treated as standard political fundraising. Each piece, in isolation, got explained away.
Two FBI raids in two months is harder to explain away.
The FBI doesn't talk about active investigations. Neither does Swalwell, lately.