FBI Had Air Marshals Covertly Monitor Former Rep Swalwell on International Flight to Obtain Device Passcodes

The FBI directed the Federal Air Marshal Service to covertly monitor former Representative Eric Swalwell aboard a United Airlines flight from Frankfurt to Washington on August 8, tasking marshals with watching him use his devices to visually determine his passcodes, The Atlantic reported, citing records not previously disclosed 1. The directive listed Swalwell as the "focus" of an FBI investigation but gave no further detail, and it is not known whether officers obtained the passcodes 1. A week later, on August 15, FBI agents met Swalwell at San Francisco International Airport, seized his phone and laptop under a search warrant, and searched his Washington home the next day 12. Current and former officials called the request atypical, noting the FBI does not usually investigate sexual assault and that using air marshals to obtain passcodes is unusual even in standard surveillance cases 13. Swalwell's attorney, Sara Azari, said the DOJ never requested his devices and called the air-marshal surveillance an "extraordinary escalation," demanding an investigation into the leak of case details 14.