Hey, big spender: Swalwell spent more campaign cash on luxuries than even Nancy Pelosi
Eric Swalwell kept up his big spending practices from his campaign cash coffers all through the year 2022.
That's what Fox News found, noting that his luxury expenses exceeded those of even the Imelda-like spending habits of House speaker, Nancy Pelosi.
California Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell spent more campaign cash on travel and luxury accommodations than Rep. Nancy Pelosi during the last two years, according to a Fox News Digital review of Federal Election Commission records.
Swalwell's campaign spent nearly $583,000 on travel expenses during the 2022 elections, the filings show. Pelosi, by contrast, finished the cycle by putting $434,000 into reported travel expenses, according to a review of her records.
Swalwell has consistently used donor funds on limousines, flights, yachts, and posh hotels, including internationally. The spending came as Americans in both his district and around the country faced rising inflation that drove food, fuel, and energy costs through the roof.
Seems there's always a need for a trip to the Ritz for campaign purposes, whether the one in Paris or the one in Half Moon Bay, both of which Swalwell has spent copiously on, even though neither city is in his district.
Throughout the 2022 elections, its largest travel expense was $20,240 to the Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay, where his wife was the sales director until 2019, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Didn't President Trump endure screams from the left for hosting summits at his hotels in the wayback? Seems conflicts of interest only apply to Republicans.
Meanwhile, the details of the Swalwell spending sprees are pretty astonishing:
Swalwell's committee also burned through thousands of dollars in Paris, France, including $1,800 early last May at the five-star Hotel La Maison Champs-Elysées, where nightly rooms run from around $1,000 to $1,200 per night.
...and...
And around that same time, the campaign expended $3,538.94 at France's "iconic" Ritz Paris, a posh hotel with several upscale bars and reservation rooms.
He also splashed out for some Miami Beach luxury accommodations. Apparently, he couldn't campaign without them.
It's actually not the first time Fox has reported this news about Swalwell's copious spending practices. They did last July here and I wrote up some commentary here.
According to Fox Digital from July:
The California Democrat's campaign has consistently dropped cash into high-end items, such as limousine services, flights and posh accommodations. His latest filings show the trend has spilled over into this year's second quarter.
Swalwell's campaign, comprised of just two paid staffers, reported spending nearly $38,000 on travel expenses between May 19 and June 30, including $3,538.94 in late May for catering for a fundraising event at France's "iconic" Ritz Paris, a posh hotel that features several upscale bars and reservation rooms.
As I noted at the time, this likely isn't a victimless crime, or a crime where only his donors are stiffed. Cash flung around like this for emoluments are easy vehicles for disguised bribery from foreign sources and Swalwell is no stranger to being a creature of hostile foreign interest, as his affair with a suspected Chinese spy, Fang Fang, demonstrated.
That the scandal was reported once and Swalwell didn't try to lay low or "be good" for awhile, suggests that this is one brazen big spender. He ought to be answering questions in the House for this, given that an intelligence operative who suddenly started living high on the hog would be a prime suspect for espionage. One wonders if this high spending on questionable campaign luxuries and emoluments might just be evidence of his being bought off by some foreign power or some unethical moneybags campaign donor.
The amount of money here exceeds that spent by Pelosi, so there's something funny going on.
It's probably not high on the list for the investigators to investigate, given how much other corruption there is in the White House, but Swalwell's spending continues to go strong, meaning, he sees no reasonm to change his ways.
Is this legal? Isn't this the same thing that got Rep. Duncan Hunter a trip to the hoosegow? Why is Swalwell still brazenly getting away with it? Who vets these things and why hasn't Swalwell been called in for questioning?
Image: Caricature by Donkey Hotey, via Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 2.0