Swalwell accused of sexually assaulting female staff member
Rep. Eric Swalwell, the Democratic front-runner in the hotly contested California governor’s race, was accused of sexual assault by a former staffer in a report released Friday.
The woman said she and the Northern California congressman occasionally had a consensual relationship, but he allegedly sexually assaulted her twice while she was too drunk to consent. The San Francisco Chronicle reports.
The woman was 21 when she started working for the congressman, who was nearly two decades her senior, and said she did not report the incidents to police for fear she would not be believed.
“I have no idea who will be governor of California, but I think people have a right to know if the person running a state that is a safe haven for so many women actually treats women with dignity and protects their rights,” this alleged sexual assault survivor told the Chronicle. “No one protected me from him, and so I need to protect other young women like me who aspire to work in this field and who he might prey on.”
Swalwell denied the accusations on Friday.
“These allegations are false and have emerged on the eve of an election against the front-runner for governor,” he said in a statement. “I have served the public as a prosecutor and congressman for nearly 20 years and have always protected women. I will defend myself with the truth and take legal action when necessary. My focus in the coming days is to be there for my wife and children and to defend our decades of service against these lies.”
State Department Fellow Democrats running for governor, Tony Thurmond and San José Mayor Matt Mahan, called on Swalwell to immediately drop out of the race.
Allegations of the congressman’s inappropriate behavior have been circulating on social media and in political circles for weeks. An attorney representing Swalwell on Thursday sent a cease and desist letter to a person demanding he stop accusing the congressman of sexual assault.
Two days earlier, the congressman had condemned online allegations that he had inappropriate relationships with young congressional staffers.
“This is wrong,” he told reporters after a town hall in Sacramento, saying he never acted inappropriately toward female staff or had sexual intercourse with a staff member or intern. He also denied allegations that his employees were asked to sign confidentiality agreements or reached legal agreements.
The allegations of inappropriate behavior come at a crucial time in the race to replace outgoing Gov. Gavin Newsom. The primary election will be held on June 2, but ballots will start arriving in voters’ mailboxes in less than a month.
The race to lead the nation’s largest state continues in a race with eight leading Democrats and two top Republicans vying to finish first or second in the primaries and advance to the November election.
Swalwell, 45, is among the leading Democrats. He had the support of 13 percent of voters in a recent UC Berkeley poll co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times. That puts him in first place among Democrats, tied with former Orange County Rep. Katie Porter; Billionaire Tom Steyer is not far behind.
Swalwell has won the support of powerful unions, including the California Teachers Assn., as well as Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and many of his Democratic colleagues in the House.
CTA President David Goldberg called the allegations “incredibly disturbing and unacceptable.”
“We are suspending our support immediately. Our elected board will meet as soon as possible to follow our union’s democratic process and determine next steps.”
Rusty Hicks, chairman of the California Democratic Party, said the victims should be believed and repeated his call for Democratic candidates to gauge their viability.
“The allegations against Congressman Swalwell are deeply disturbing,” he said in a statement. “Anyone who engages in misconduct must take responsibility and be held accountable for their actions, including Congressmen and Governor candidates. Finally, I reiterate, my call to all Governor candidates to ‘honestly evaluate the viability of their candidacy and campaign’ remains valid. In fact, that call is now more important than ever.”
Concerns began to emerge among Democrats before the allegations were released Friday.
The woman told the Chronicle that in 2019, when she was 21, she was hired to work in Swalwell’s Castro Valley district office. The woman quickly began stalking him, sending him messages and then nude photos via Snapchat.
He said he had been drinking with the congressman in September of that year, lost consciousness, and could feel the effects of sexual intercourse when he woke up naked in Swalwell’s hotel bed, according to the report. He said that in 2024, when he was no longer working for Swalwell, he attended a charity event honoring the congressman and others and then met him for drinks. He was drunk, but he recalled Swalwell pushing himself, pushing him away and saying “No,” according to the Chronicle.
The Chronicle corroborated his report with messages he sent to a friend at the time and interviews with the friend and the woman’s then-boyfriend. Chronicle reporters also reviewed pregnancy-related medical records and STD scripts a week after the alleged assault. He told them he kept quiet about the alleged assaults because he feared professional and personal repercussions.
Cheyenne Hunt, a Laguna Hills attorney and executive director of a progressive advocacy group, and social media influencer Arielle Fodor, known online as Ms. Frazzled, are among those who posted the allegations online. Florida Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, who has sparred with Swalwell in the past, also amplified the allegations on social media.
The Times did not independently verify reports of inappropriate behavior.
Many politicians have survived allegations of sexual impropriety; especially President Trump, who was accused of rape before winning the White House in 2016; Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who admitted to inappropriate behavior during his movie career during the 2003 recall election, and Newsom, who admitted to having an affair with a married staffer while he was mayor of San Francisco.
Former prosecutor Swalwell is married and has three children. The Iowa native briefly ran for president in 2020. On Thursday, he canceled his town hall in Palm Desert because he was ill.
She has spoken out against sexual abuse before, most recently supporting women who told the New York Times they were assaulted by legendary farmworker organizer César Chávez.
“The women who have come forward carry years of pain. It takes real courage to talk about it,” Swalwell wrote in a tweet last month. “Ana Murguia, Debra Rojas and Dolores Huerta are speaking clearly and forcefully. I stand with them and condemn all acts of sexual assault.”
The congresswoman also defended women who accused then-U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual harassment in 2018.
“As the number of separate and independent cases that appear to be the same increases, before long a prosecutor starts telling a jury that the arrows are pointing in the same direction and what are the odds of three or four women who have never met each other independently having similar experiences with one person,” she told MSNOW’s Ari Melber during Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings in September 2018.
In Congress, Swalwell has become a leading critic of President Trump; He served as manager of the president’s second impeachment and frequently roasted Trump on cable news shows.
In late March, the Washington Post reported that FBI Director Kash Patel might release documents related to a decade-long investigation into Swalwell’s connections to a suspected Chinese spy. Swalwell cut ties with Christine Fang, or Fang Fang, in 2015 after intelligence officials warned him and other members of Congress about Chinese efforts to infiltrate lawmakers’ offices. Swalwell was not accused of impropriety.
After news broke of the files’ potential release, Swalwell accused Trump of trying to influence the gubernatorial election and arming the federal government against his political enemies.
Swalwell’s attorneys served a cease and desist letter to Patel and the FBI. As of Friday, no documents had been released.
He was previously accused of mortgage fraud by Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte. Swalwell sued Pulte last year but dropped the lawsuit this month.
In the governor’s race, Swalwell faced criticism from fellow Democrat Tom Steyer that he was ineligible to run for governor because he did not actually live in California. Earlier this year, a Sacramento County judge ruled against a similar claim from a conservative filmmaker.
