By Helen Coster
April 14 (Reuters) – A fifth woman came forward on Tuesday to accuse U.S. Representative Eric Swalwell of sexual misconduct, a day after the embattled Democrat announced he was resigning from Congress and two days after he bowed out of the race for governor of California.
Appearing at her lawyer’s office in Beverly Hills, former model and fashion software entrepreneur Lonna Drewes recounted an alleged 2018 encounter with Swalwell in which she said he spiked her glass of wine with an intoxicant that left her immobilized, then “he raped me.”
An attorney for Swalwell, 45, who is married and has three children, issued a statement on Tuesday saying her client “categorically and unequivocally denies each and every allegation of sexual misconduct and assault that has been leveled against him.”
The statement described the allegations as politically motivated fabrications.
Drewes said the assault occurred after she had accompanied Swalwell to his Beverly Hills hotel room, ostensibly so he could retrieve some paperwork on their way to a political event together, and that she was “already incapacitated” by the time they reached his room.
‘I THOUGHT I HAD DIED’
“I couldn’t move my arms or my body,” she told reporters, adding that at one point during the assault, Swalwell choked her, and that she lost consciousness.
“I thought I had died,” Drewes said, adding, “I did not consent to any sexual activity.”
By then, according to Drewes, she had joined Swalwell at two public events he had previously invited her to after they had met socially, and he had “offered me connections to further my software company.”
“I knew he was married at the time, and that his wife was pregnant. He was my friend,” said Drewes, who recalled that she was then considering a run for City Council. She also said she was in a committed relationship with someone else at the time.
Drewes said the incident had a profound effect on her mental health, and that she “self-medicated in an unhealthy way,” lost the will to live and “cried all the time for years” afterward.
“My delay in taking action against Eric was driven by fear, not doubt. Fear of his political power,” Drewes said.
Drewes’ attorney, Lisa Bloom, said that her firm will be filing a police report with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. The firm will be providing evidence including text messages, journal entries and witness information, Bloom said.
FOUR PREVIOUS ACCUSERS
Swalwell, who had been a front-runner for the governorship of California, the most populous U.S. state, ended his campaign on Sunday shortly after The San Francisco Chronicle and CNN reported that a woman who previously worked in his district office had accused him of two nonconsensual sexual encounters.
The woman told CNN that Swalwell raped her during a 2024 encounter, after she had left his staff, in a New York City hotel.
The former aide, whom the Chronicle and CNN did not name, was quoted as saying she had been too intoxicated on both occasions to consent, according to the report. The Manhattan district attorney’s office on Saturday confirmed it was investigating the sexual assault allegations.
CNN also reported that three other women leveled sexual misconduct allegations against Swalwell, who has been in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2013.
In a statement posted on X Monday, Swalwell, who had been a frequent guest on cable news programs, apologized to his family, staff and constituents for “mistakes in judgments I’ve made in my past” and vowed to fight “the serious, false allegation” against him.
His resignation from Congress took effect Tuesday afternoon. With political backing and endorsements rapidly eroding, he announced on Sunday that he was ending his bid for governor.
In the strongest defense offered yet on Swalwell’s behalf, his lawyer, Sara Azari, issued a statement on Tuesday describing the allegations against her client as a “calculated and transparent political hit job.”
Swalwell’s departure leaves a crowded and fragmented Democratic field, dominated by low-polling contenders led by billionaire Tom Steyer and former Representative Katie Porter, all vying to succeed Gavin Newsom, who is nearing the end of his second four-year term and barred by term limits from running again.
No Republican has won a statewide election in California since 2006. But Swalwell’s departure is seen as possibly providing an unexpected opening for two Republican candidates, including Steve Hilton, endorsed by U.S. President Donald Trump, to advance to the general election in California’s non-partisan top-two primary race in June.
(Reporting by Helen Coster in New York; Additional reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; editing by Donna Bryson, Alistair Bell and Shri Navaratnam)
Comments