Swalwell says President Trump and FBI are trying to ‘interfere with California elections’
Swalwell said President Trump and the FBI could release files from a private investigation to interfere in California’s gubernatorial election.
Rep. Eric Swalwell, a leading candidate for California governor, has been accused of sexual assault by a former staffer in a report published by the San Francisco Chronicle on Friday, April 10th.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, a former employee alleged that Swalwell had sexual contact with her while working for her, and that Swalwell sexually assaulted her twice while she was “too drunk to consent.” Mr. Swalwell denied the allegations.
“These claims are false and were made on the eve of an election against the leading candidate for governor,” Swalwell said in a statement. “I have served the public for nearly 20 years as a prosecutor and lawmaker and have always protected women. I will protect myself with the facts and take legal action if necessary. My focus in the coming days, along with my wife and children, is to protect our decades of service from these lies.”
The San Francisco Chronicle also reported that Swalwell’s attorney, Elias Davai, sent the woman a cease and desist letter. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the letter demands that he stop making “false statements accusing Mr. Swalwell of sexual assault and nonconsensual sexual touching,” and threatens to sue if he does not retract his statements.
Since the publication of this article, some of Mr. Swalwell’s opponents who have been campaigning have called for Mr. Swalwell to withdraw from the race.
Mr. Swalwell has been in the spotlight for weeks after being accused of inappropriate behavior online. His campaign denied the allegations and said he was targeted because he was a leading candidate in the California gubernatorial race.
“That’s false,” Swalwell told reporters at an election town hall in Sacramento on April 8. “There was never a complaint and there was never a settlement.”
Swalwell was scheduled to hold another town hall event in Palm Desert on April 9, but it was canceled at the last minute “due to illness,” according to KESQ 3.
Allegations against Eric Swalwell
A former employee told the San Francisco Chronicle that Swalwell hounded her for several weeks after she was hired in 2019 in the Castro Valley Democratic Party district office. She alleges that Mr. Swalwell’s sexual advances began when she was 21 years old, when he sent her photos of his genitals and demanded nude photos in return.
The woman is not named in the report because she is the alleged victim of sexual assault.
She told the San Francisco Chronicle that Mr. Swalwell invited her out for drinks in September 2019, where she became “severely intoxicated” and later woke up naked in Mr. Swalwell’s hotel bed, according to the report. She said she could not remember what happened the night before, but “felt the effects of vaginal intercourse,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
In April 2024, she claimed that Swalwell “forced himself on her” after a charity event where he was honored, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The woman told the Chronicle that she was not working on Swalwell’s staff at the time and that she met with Swalwell for drinks after the event.
A few days later, she told a friend and her then-boyfriend about the alleged sexual assault, saying she “woke up once in the middle of it and told him to stop at some point,” according to text messages reviewed by the San Francisco Chronicle.
Her then-boyfriend encouraged her to report Swalwell to the police, but she said she was afraid to go to authorities because she believed police would not take her claims seriously, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. She provided the newspaper with medical records showing she was tested for pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases a week after the incident, the report said.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Davayer’s cease-and-desist letter asserts that the woman was “not a victim, but a loyal and cooperative colleague,” and that “the credibility of your accusations was fatally undermined by your voluntary and cooperative relationship with Mr. Swalwell over the years following the period in question.”
Gerald Singleton, an attorney representing the woman, told the San Francisco Chronicle that “the statement was 100% factual and she has no intention of recanting it.”
Swalwell asked to withdraw from race
Several of Mr. Swalwell’s opponents on the campaign trail, including Katie Porter, Matt Mahan and Tony Thurmond, have called on Mr. Swalwell to withdraw from the California gubernatorial race.
Porter called the accusations against Swalwell “horrifying” and affirmed the courage of the women coming forward, saying in a social media post: “We believe in you and we stand with you.”
In addition, several groups and politicians who had supported Mr. Swalwell have also withdrawn their support for him.
Congressman Ro Khanna called on law enforcement and the House Ethics Committee to investigate the allegations against Mr. Swalwell. “He has to take responsibility,” Khanna told X.
Senator Adam Schiff said he was “deeply concerned” by the allegations and announced he was withdrawing his support for Swalwell.
The California Teachers Association, which endorsed Swalwell in March, said in a statement that it was “immediately suspending support” for Swalwell’s campaign, calling the allegations against him “incredibly disturbing and unacceptable.”
Noe Padilla is a Northern California reporter for USA Today. To contact him, npadilla@usatodayco.comX Follow him at @1NoePadilla or Bluesky @noepadilla.bsky.social.. Sign up for the TODAY Californian newsletter or follow TODAY Californian on Facebook.
