Eric Swalwell’s campaign paid more than $300,000 to a law firm that specializes in white-collar criminal defense, according to FEC records, sending 44 payments over seven years, with individual transactions ranging from $250 to more than $35,000.
Filings identify the firm as Coblentz Patch Duffy & Bass, a Bay Area practice that handles criminal defense and employment law.
Between 2016 and 2023, Swalwell's congressional campaign made 44 payments to Bay Area-based law firm Coblentz Patch Duffy & Bass LLC totaling $305,118. The payments range between $250 up to $35,623.
Those payments run through a period that includes a 2018 Justice Department effort that reportedly obtained records from members of Congress, including Swalwell, and a 2021 House Ethics Committee investigation into his contacts with a suspected Chinese intelligence operative, which was closed in 2023.
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The campaign says the spending was tied to pressure from the Trump administration and the need to prepare for possible investigations.
A spokesman for Swalwell's campaign said the payments were for legal guidance amid President Donald Trump's “retaliatory investigations” that “have put his family and staff at risk.”
The campaign points to those investigations but does not identify a specific legal matter tied to the spending, and when asked for an example, it cited the 2018 DOJ records seizure and the ethics probe, both already public.
The attorney who received the payments described the work as compliance advice and preparation, not tied to any specific case.
“I was retained as outside counsel to provide legal guidance to the congressman’s office, ensuring staff remained fully compliant with applicable laws and prepared for potential contact from politically motivated actors. This was not related to any employment matter.”
President Donald Trump was in office for four of the seven years covered by those payments, a period the campaign cites in explaining the legal costs tied to potential investigations. The filings show those payments continuing across multiple reporting cycles, rather than tied to a single event or discrete legal matter, including years when no new investigative action was publicly identified. That pattern reflects ongoing outside legal involvement over time, not a one-time response to a specific development.
Adam Schiff faced similar scrutiny, including the reported DOJ records sweep, yet his campaign filings do not show comparable spending on white-collar criminal defense attorneys during that period; later, as scrutiny increased, he took a different approach by creating a legal defense fund.
More than $300,000. Forty-four payments. Criminal defense attorneys. Those payments were made with campaign funds, yet the filings do not tie them to any specific case.
Come November, voters will decide whether that adds up.
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