‘Bizarre inconsistency’: Expert sounds alarm over Swalwell campaign’s payment descriptions

First on Fox: One of President Donald Trump’s harshest critics, California Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell, has raised eyebrows over a “strange inconsistency” in his campaign’s Federal election Commission filings that list several different reasons for payments to a Haitian-American employee, totaling more than $360,000.

Federal Election Commission filings from Swalwell to congress and his political action committee, dating from 2021 through last month, show more than 75 payments to someone named Darlie Meyer, with various reasons given for the payments. Individual payments vary from $53 to over $12,000.

Depending on the payments, Mayer received varying amounts each year, including more than 27 payments last year amounting to more than $120,000. He’s also on track to make over $120,000 in 2025.

FEC filings list several different reasons for the payments, ranging from travel expenses and car service to security services to salary. There are also numerous payments to Meyer for things like “reimbursement for personal travel expenses,” “reimbursement for event flowers,” and postage.

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Besides working on the Swalwell campaign, Mayer also owns a limousine service called CYD Global Car Service based in North Hollywood. According to the company’s website, it provides professional chauffeurs, corporate shuttles and limousine services, with a focus on luxury travel.

He is also the administrator of a Facebook group called “CaliHaitians – Haitians of Az, Ca, Nv, Hi, Or, Wa,” which describes itself as a “progressive community” of Haitians living in the United States, and which has more than 3,000 members. The About page goes on to say that the group is “selective” about who can become a member, saying they want to form a “closer association” with “leaders of groups/organizations able to provide professional services to enhance the community.”

“Finally, by establishing a strategic partnership and casting a wider net to improve the conditions of Haiti and its children outside the country, we are inviting key members of other organizations or groups with over 500 members to join us,” the group continued on Facebook.

In addition to Mayer, the group includes several other officials, including a woman named Gerlene Joseph, co-founder and executive director of the Haiti Bridge Alliance (HBA), which describes itself as “working to end racist border policies like Remain in Mexico, Title 42, and the border-to-prison-deportation pipeline” and helps undocumented immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Swalwell campaign to inquire about the different classifications and asked about Mayer’s role on his staff since the payments switched from “security services” to “salary.” Swalwell did not comment on the reason for the different classifications, saying only that “Darlie protects me and my family.”

Swalwell also took to [the reporter] Bill?” Fox News Digital reviewed online records from the California Bureau of Security and Investigative Services, but it does not appear Darley has a security clearance.

When Fox News Digital reached out to Mayer about the payments, he responded: “No comment.”

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Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., speaks during a House Judiciary Committee hearing with FBI Director Kash Patel at the Rayburn House Office Building on September 17, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Wayne McNamee/Getty Images)

“This is the kind of bizarre discrepancy that should draw the attention of the FEC,” Hans von Spakovsky, a former FEC commissioner who is now a senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told Fox News Digital.

Von Spakovsky added that the violations should “prompt the agency’s audit arm to investigate whether these were legitimate payments to a legitimate contractor.”

This isn’t the first time Swalwell has raised eyebrows about his campaign spending. According to Federal Election Commission filings over the years, Swalwell’s campaign has reported numerous expenditures on luxury car services, expensive restaurants and luxury hotels, including in Dubai, Berlin, Paris, London and elsewhere.

Fox News Digital previously reported that Swalwell’s campaign dropped tens of thousands of dollars on Just Dreaming Yacht Charters, a San Francisco agency that offers “comfortable and luxurious” private yachts that seat up to 40 passengers, as fundraising expenses. In October 2023, his campaign spent nearly $17,000 with the company.

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Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., also recently came under fire for proposing to require 2028 Democratic presidential candidates to pledge to destroy President Donald Trump’s privately funded ballroom at the White House on Day One. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images/The White House)

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According to end-of-2023 filings, Swalwell’s campaign reported three payments of approximately $1,700 in Dubai at the five-star Burj Al Arab hotel, considered a “global symbol of Arab luxury.”

Swalwell’s campaign spent nearly $90,000 on travel expenses during the last three months of 2023 alone, including at several other hotels such as the 1 Hotel San Francisco, the Austin Proper Hotel, and the Times Square Edition.

In 2022, Swalwell’s report showed that his campaign spent nearly $60,000 on travel expenses over a six-week period between April and May, including $1,752 at the five-star La Maison Champs-Elysées hotel in Paris.