In this screenshot from a congress.gov webcast, Impeachment Manager Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., speaks on the second day of President Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial at the Capitol in Washington, February 10, 2021.
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California Rep. Eric Swalwell has dropped his lawsuit against Bill Pulte, in which he accused the Federal Housing Finance Agency director of using mortgage fraud investigations as a weapon against critics of President Donald Trump.
Swalwell — a California gubernatorial candidate — filed the lawsuit in November, arguing that Pulte unlawfully accessed and disclosed his private mortgage records, violating federal privacy law and the First Amendment’s “fundamental prohibition on viewpoint-based retaliation.”
“Director Pulte has combed through private records of political opponents in an attempt to silence them,” Swalwell wrote in a statement on X at the time.
Swalwell, a seven-term congressman and House impeachment manager during Trump’s second impeachment, has long been one of the president’s most vocal critics.
Pulte had referred Swalwell to the Justice Department over allegations that the congressman may have made false or misleading statements in loan documents for a home in Washington. Swalwell called the claims “patently false.”
Swalwell’s decision to drop the lawsuit comes as his gubernatorial opponents have raised questions about his suitability to run for California’s top job. Democratic rival Tom Steyer accused Swalwell of living in California “only on paper.”
A separate lawsuit filed by conservative filmmaker Joel Gilbert seeking to keep Swalwell from running was tentatively dismissed Friday after a California judge found sufficient evidence that he had lived in the state for the required five years.
Pulte did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Swalwell campaign also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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