Swalwell first propositioned the staffer when she was 21 and he was 38, the staffer said. Her allegations prompted some staffers on Swalwell’s gubernatorial campaign to resign.
A former staffer for California congressman and gubernatorial candidate Eric Swalwell accused the Democrat of sexually assaulting her twice while she was intoxicated and of sending her photos of his genitals, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
The former staffer told the Chronicle that Swalwell propositioned her soon after she started working for him in 2019, when she was 21 years old and Swalwell was 38. Swalwell, who married his wife Brittany in 2016, first sent the woman photos of his genitals and requested nude photos in return, the former staffer said. Then, in September 2019, he invited her out for drinks. The staffer said she became “severely intoxicated” and “woke up naked in Swalwell’s hotel bed and could feel the effect of vaginal intercourse.”
The former staffer encountered Swalwell at a charity event five years later, in 2024, when she no longer worked for the Democrat. She and Swalwell “met for drinks afterward, during which she became so inebriated that she only remembers snippets of the night, including pushing Swalwell away and telling him, ‘No,’ while he allegedly forced himself on her,” the Chronicle reported.
The woman days after the encounter sent text messages to a friend stating that Swalwell had “sexually assaulted” her, according to the Chronicle, which reviewed the text messages. She told her friend she had “blacked out” that evening but “woke up once during it and even told him to stop at one point.” Medical records also show that the woman “obtained pregnancy and STD tests a week after the incident,” the Chronicle reported, adding that Swalwell told her not to worry about a pregnancy “because he was ‘snipped,’ referring to a vasectomy.”
The bombshell report had swift reverberations for Swalwell, who is leading a crowded field in the gubernatorial race. According to Politico, multiple Swalwell campaign staffers abruptly resigned on Friday in the wake of the Chronicle story. Swalwell canceled a campaign event in Palm Desert on Thursday, claiming to be sick.
Sen. Ruben Gallego (D., Ariz.), who earlier this week sought to discredit the allegations against Swalwell, pulled his endorsement of his longtime friend on Friday. “What is described is indefensible,” Gallego wrote. “I regret having come to his defense on social media prior to knowing all the information.”
Swalwell, a staunch critic of President Donald Trump, has so far denied the allegations and threatened his accusers with legal action.
“These allegations are false and come on the eve of an election against the frontrunner for governor,” Swalwell said in a statement to the Chronicle. “For nearly 20 years, I have served the public—as a prosecutor and a congressman and have always protected women. I will defend myself with the facts and where necessary bring legal action. My focus in the coming days is to be with my wife and children and defend our decades of service against these lies.”
Swalwell’s lawyers worked furiously this week to keep the allegations from coming to light. According to the Chronicle, Swalwell lawyer Elias Dabaie sent a cease and desist letter to the former Swalwell staffer, threatening to sue her for defamation.
The woman “made false statements accusing Mr. Swalwell of sexual assault and nonconsensual sexual encounter,” Dabaie said. He also suggested that the former staffer’s allegations are not credible because the staffer maintained a “voluntary and cooperative relationship with Mr. Swalwell over the course of many years following the period in question.”
It’s a far cry from how Swalwell reacted when Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh was accused of engaging in sexual misconduct while in high school and college.
“I saw continued demeaning of victims of sexual assault, people who deserve to be heard, who deserve for their allegations to be investigated,” Swalwell told MSNBC during Kavanaugh’s bitter 2018 confirmation process. “For Brett Kavanaugh’s sake, if he is innocent, I hope tomorrow he opens his statement and says, you know what, bring in all the victims, allow them to be heard, allow them to be questioned. That will clear his name if he’s indeed innocent.”
Cheyenne Hunt, a California-based attorney working with several of Swalwell’s accusers, on Friday posted the cease-and-desist letter on Friday.
“This is just the beginning,” Hunt said in response to the Chronicle story.
The allegations surface as the Trump administration reportedly weighs the release of an intelligence report about Swalwell’s relationship with Chinese spy Christine Fang. Swalwell and Fang had an unspecified relationship between 2012, when Swalwell served on the Dublin, Calif., city council, and 2015, after he was elected to Congress.
Swalwell’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.