A former aide to Rep. Eric Swalwell, a top Democratic candidate for governor of California, told the San Francisco Chronicle that she had sexual encounters with him when he was her boss and alleged that he twice sexually assaulted her when she was too intoxicated to consent.
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The woman worked for Swalwell from 2019 until 2021, NBC News confirmed. The woman’s lawyer declined to comment and NBC News has not verified her allegations, as reported by the Chronicle.
Swalwell did not immediately respond to requests to comment via his campaign, congressional office or his attorney. He told the Chronicle in a statement that the woman’s allegations are not true.
“These allegations are false and come on the eve of an election against the frontrunner for governor,” he wrote, later adding: “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.”
The former staffer told the Chronicle that in September 2019, while she was employed by him, Swalwell invited her out for drinks, and she became so intoxicated that she doesn’t remember what happened. She said she woke up naked in his hotel bed and could “feel the effect of vaginal intercourse.”
In April 2024, after she stopped working for the congressman, she said she met Swalwell for drinks after a charity gala at which he was honored. She again became so inebriated while drinking with him that she only remembers “snippets” of the evening, she told the paper. One of the flashes she recalled was Swalwell having sex with her in his hotel room and telling him no.
The Chronicle says it reviewed text messages she sent to a friend about that encounter three days later, which included that she told Swalwell to stop. The paper also interviewed her boyfriend at the time, who confirmed she told him about the alleged assault and its reporters viewed medical records that showed she sought pregnancy and STD tests afterward.
In the days before the story was published on Friday, rumors bounced around both left-wing and right-wing social media about potential allegations against the congressman related to sexual misconduct. Swalwell was asked about the rumors by a reporter for KTXL in Sacramento, who said she asked whether he had ever had inappropriate relations with a staffer or intern. “It’s false,” he replied.
Swalwell’s campaign attempted to get out in front of any story, issuing a rare but vehement preemptive denial, saying that the congressman had not engaged in any inappropriate behavior.
“This false, outrageous rumor is being spread 27 days before an election begins by flailing opponents who have sadly teamed up with MAGA conspiracy theorists because they know Eric Swalwell is the frontrunner in this race,” Micah Beasley, a campaign spokesman, said in a statement Wednesday.
The statement did not mention or address any specific allegations but said in response to some online rumors that Swalwell had not asked anyone in his office to sign a non-disclosure agreement. The Chronicle’s report did not include any allegations related to NDAs.
“In 13 years, no one in Eric Swalwell’s Congressional office has ever been asked to sign an NDA. Ever,” Beasley said in his Wednesday statement. “In 13 years, not a single ethics complaint by any staff in his office or any other office has ever been lodged. Ever.”
After the Chronicle story published on Friday, Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-Calif., said in a statement he had stepped down from Swalwell’s gubernatorial campaign, where he served as a campaign chair, and called on him to drop out of the race. “Today I learned shocking information about Eric Swalwell containing the ugliest and most serious accusations imaginable,” Gomez said, adding that Swalwell “should leave the race now so there can be full accountability without doubt, distraction, or delay.”
Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., said he was withdrawing his endorsement of Swalwell, a close friend. “I’ve read the San Francisco Chronicle’s reporting and I take it seriously,” he said. “What is described is indefensible. Women who come forward with accounts like this deserve to be heard with respect, not questioned or dismissed. … I am withdrawing my endorsement of Congressman Swalwell, effective immediately.”
The California Teachers Association also suspended its endorsement of Swalwell.
“The allegations are incredibly disturbing and unacceptable against Rep. Swalwell. We are immediately suspending our support,” CTA President David Goldberg said in a statement.
On Friday, all of Swalwell’s campaign ads for his gubernatorial bid on Facebook and Instagram were listed as “inactive,” including ads that were running earlier in the day, according to a review of Meta’s ad archive.
The California primary for governor will take place on June 2, with early voting starting on May 4.
Swalwell, 45, a close ally of Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, a fellow San Francisco Bay Area Democrat, has served in Congress since 2013 and launched a long-shot, failed bid for the White House in 2020.
He’s been a vocal critic of President Donald Trump in both of his terms. After the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, Pelosi named Swalwell, an attorney, one of Democrats’ nine impeachment prosecutors.
Swalwell’s sharp criticism of the president made him a target of Trump allies and the right. At the start of 2023, then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., blocked Swalwell from serving on the House Intelligence Committee, citing his ties to a 2014 campaign volunteer who later was suspected to be a Chinese spy, Christina Fang. That year, the House Ethics Committee took no action against Swalwell after a two-year investigation into the matter.
Swalwell cut ties with Fang in 2015 after the FBI gave him what’s known as a “defensive” briefing that she was working for Beijing and targeting several local rising politicians in the San Francisco Bay Area. Swalwell has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in the Fang affair and said he assisted the FBI in its investigation.
Last month, Swalwell asked the FBI not to release files related to his past association with the suspected Chinese intelligence operative.
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