‘ActBlue, I want my money back,’ says Swalwell donor
Disbursements from Eric Swalwell’s campaign accounts corroborate the allegations leveled by a woman who says the former congressman sexually assaulted her in 2018, raising the prospect that Swalwell used campaign contributions to facilitate his alleged sexual misconduct.
Beverly Hills model Lonna Drewes filed a criminal complaint Tuesday alleging that she and Swalwell were supposed to go to a “political event” in 2018 when, instead, the then-congressman put a drug in her drink and took her to a hotel room in West Hollywood, where she says he raped her and choked her while she was incapacitated. The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said the alleged incident “occurred in July of 2018 in a business in the 900 block of Hammond Street, in the City of West Hollywood.”
That description matches a pair of Swalwell campaign disbursements reported to the Federal Election Commission showing the congressman spent $361 in “travel expenses” at the Montrose West Hollywood, located at 900 Hammond Street, on July 18, 2018.
Paul Kamenar, an attorney with the National Legal and Policy Center, an ethics watchdog, told the Washington Free Beacon that the campaign payments could expose Swalwell to more legal headaches as the ex-congressman faces an ongoing criminal investigation. Kamenar noted that the records show Swalwell may have violated federal campaign laws by using campaign funds for recreational activity.
The campaign payments and their apparent connection to Drewes’s allegation could also lead to financial revolt from what remains of Swalwell’s donor base. One Swalwell donor wrote in a letter to the editor of the Los Angeles Times that she felt “defrauded” and signaled she would demand a refund from his campaign.
“ActBlue, I want my money back,” wrote the donor, Cheryl Younger. “I’m not interested in electing someone who won’t keep his hands in his pockets and his pants zipped when he is representing us and we are paying the tab.”
Five women, including several former Swalwell staffers, have come forward since Friday accusing Swalwell of sexual misconduct, leading him to abandon his bid for California governor on Sunday and resign from Congress on Tuesday. Swalwell also faces a separate criminal probe by the Manhattan district attorney into allegations he sexually assaulted one of his former staffers in New York City in April 2024.
Swalwell’s attorney, Sara Azari, said in a statement Tuesday that the allegations are “false” and part of a “calculated and transparent political hit job designed to destroy the reputation of a man who has spent nearly twenty years in public service.”
Swalwell emphatically denied having any sexual contact with employees as recently as last Tuesday: “There has never been an allegation and there has never been a settlement,” he said.
But now Azari says the issue at hand is the nature of the sexual engagements Swalwell may have had with staffers, declaring Tuesday that “regret is not rape.”
“I don’t care if you are passing judgment because of inappropriate sex or immoral sex,” Azari said on NewsNation. “The issue that we’re talking about here is whether it was unconsensual sex that is criminal sex. And, you know, adults consenting, which is our position, is not against the law.”
Azari did not return a request for comment.
Law enforcement officials at the Department of Homeland Security are also investigating complaints filed against Swalwell in recent weeks accusing him of using campaign funds to hire a Brazilian national without a legal work authorization to serve as his stay-at-home nanny, Politico reported Sunday.