Eric Swalwell faces Manhattan sex assault probe after ending California governor campaign amid allegations
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office is investigating sex assault allegations against embattled Rep. Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat who suspended his campaign to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom after the accusations became public last week.
Separately, the House Ethics Committee announced Monday its own probe into allegations of sexual misconduct.
A former staffer accused Swalwell of sexually assaulting her when she was blackout drunk twice, including once in New York City in 2024, according to a report in the San Francisco Chronicle published Friday.
The unnamed woman told the paper that she was hired at 21 to work in Swalwell's district office in 2019 and claimed her married boss began pursuing her weeks later. She reportedly claimed he sent her naked pictures over Snapchat and asked for oral sex in a parking lot during a ride home from an event. On another occasion, she claimed to have awoken naked in Swalwell's bed after blacking out drinking.
The New York investigation stems from separate allegations in the article, when she was no longer an employee of Swalwell's office. They allegedly met up for drinks after a gala in Manhattan at around 11:30 p.m. on April 25, 2024.
According to the report, she claimed to remember only "snippets of the night," including telling Swalwell "no." Three days later, she reportedly told a friend she believed she was sexually assaulted.
"I have no skin in the game of who becomes governor of California, but I feel people have a right to know whether the person who leads a state that is a safe haven for so many women actually treats women with dignity and will protect their rights," the Chronicle quoted her as saying. "No one protected me from him, and so I have to protect the other young women like me who aspire to work in this field and he could prey upon."
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She claimed she kept quiet for years, however, out of fear of retaliation.
"We urge survivors and anyone with knowledge of these allegations to contact our Special Victims Division at 212-335-9373," a spokesperson for the DA's office told Fox News over the weekend. "Our specially trained prosecutors, investigators and counselors are well-equipped to help you in a trauma-informed, survivor-centered manner."
Swalwell has denied the allegations and apologized to his wife in a video posted online. He said he planned to fight the accusations but stepped out of the California governor's race anyway.
"I will fight the serious, false allegations that have been made," he wrote on X Sunday. "But that's my fight, not a campaign's."
Since the initial report, several other women have come forward with other misconduct allegations.
Fox News' Max Gorden and Kelly Phares contributed to this report.