Eric Swalwell's rapid fall leaves allies reeling as more women come forward

For a decade, Eric Swalwell's ascent in Washington was entwined with Donald Trump's. As Trump's power grew, so did the profile of the Castro Valley Democrat, a prominent critic of the president.

Dating back to Trump's first campaign in 2016, Swalwell made a name for himself calling out the Republican businessman on national TV and at the U.S. Capitol, criticizing everything from his policy decisions to his longtime friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. It earned Swalwell a liberal following that appeared poised to elevate him to the California governorship in November.

But behind the scenes, Swalwell was allegedly engaging in a pattern of behavior that would eventually be his downfall: luring in young women, often more than a decade younger than him and at the start of their careers, with offers of mentorship that turned into explicit messages, invitations to his hotel rooms and, multiple women say, sexual assault.

One woman, whose story is first reported here, says she met Swalwell in early 2016 when he visited the campus Democratic club at UC San Diego, where she was a student. The woman, then 27, said she spoke with Swalwell about a problem with financial aid applications that had delayed her from pursuing a college education and that she hoped he might take up as a cause.

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Related reading: Ex-staffer says Eric Swalwell, candidate for California governor, sexually assaulted her

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Also: Swalwell ends governor campaign after Chronicle investigation into sexual assault allegations

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‘Keep digging': What happened in the days leading up to the Chronicle's Eric Swalwell story

After giving Swalwell her phone number to follow up, the woman, who shared her experience on the condition of anonymity, said he began sending flirty messages on Snapchat, which allows people to send messages and photos that disappear in seconds. The woman took videos of some of the exchanges, which she shared with the Chronicle, showing Swalwell inquiring about her love life, sending photos of himself lying in bed and asking to meet up.

Though she initially felt validated by the attention from a member of Congress, the woman said she cut off contact when she learned Swalwell was married.

"Our politicians are supposed to be the best amongst us. And they're not," she said. "That illusion shattered around that time."

It also shattered for millions of Californians last week when the Chronicle reported that a former staffer for Swalwell said he sexually assaulted her twice when she was too intoxicated to consent.

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More reading: Eric Swalwell resigns from Congress

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Also: New accuser alleges Eric Swalwell drugged and raped her

Days earlier, Swalwell was giving his stump speech to a cheering crowd in Sacramento as he consolidated Democratic backing in the governor's race. Now he's lost his most powerful friends and supporters, is under criminal investigation and has been banished from political office, probably forever.

It was a stunningly fast fall from grace for a rising star in the Democratic Party, which many close allies and people who knew Swalwell are still trying to make sense of.

"Eric Swalwell lied to all of us. He lied to the most powerful people in this country, and they trusted him," his former close friend Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Arizona, told reporters this week. "That clouded my judgment."

Swalwell has denied the charges, but on Sunday ended his governor run and on Tuesday resigned his seat in Congress.

"I am deeply sorry to my family, staff and constituents for mistakes in judgment I have made in my past," he wrote in his resignation letter, which was read on the floor of the House of Representatives on Tuesday. "I will fight the serious, false allegations made against me. However, I must take responsibility and ownership for the mistakes I did make."

Swalwell spent his early life and career in the East Bay. He grew up in Dublin and later became a prosecutor for Alameda County, then served for two years on the Dublin City Council. He made an instant splash in 2012 when, at age 31, he upset the 20-term incumbent Rep. Pete Stark, pitching generational change and a more centrist vision for a seat that had become slightly less Democratic in the recent redistricting cycle.

One former staffer who joined the upstart Swalwell's office said he felt proud in the beginning to work for "the hip, young congressperson" who was innovating how to reach his constituents. The former staffer, who asked not to be named because of sensitivities around the allegations against Swalwell, recalled his boss Skyping into local government meetings and developing an active presence on then-new platforms such as Twitter and Snapchat.

Swalwell most notably gained visibility as a member of the House Intelligence Committee. By the next year, he was serving as a key part of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and making frequent media appearances about the probe, introducing himself to the nation as a leading Trump critic.

In one segment on CNN in July 2018, he vouched for the credibility of former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, who had turned on his former boss.

"As a former prosecutor, I've proved many cases, and it happens all the time, that proven liars come around, and they do the right thing," Swalwell told anchor Chris Cuomo.

There was already chatter in political circles about Swalwell being flirtatious and dating numerous women, the former staffer said. But on Oct. 14, 2016, he married Brittany Watts in a ceremony officiated by then-Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O'Malley.

"I was like, ‘Oof, I'm glad that's over now,'" the former staffer said.

Yet in private, his alleged misconduct would only get more brazen, according to several women who have since come forward to the Chronicle, CNN or publicly with their accounts.

In 2018, Swalwell was allegedly pursuing a friendship with a model in Beverly Hills named Lonna Drewes. A businesswoman and aspiring politician, Drewes said Swalwell promised to help advance her career. But the third time they met, in July 2018, Drewes said she believes Swalwell spiked her drink, then brought her to his hotel room under the guise of needing to pick up paperwork and assaulted her.

"He raped me and he choked me," she told reporters Tuesday, fighting back tears at a press conference. "While he was choking me, I lost consciousness and I thought I died. I did not consent to any sexual activity."

Drewes said she did not come forward publicly because she believed bringing allegations against the congressman would harm her political aspirations. She suffered in silence, she said, and sometimes wished she were dead.

Swalwell, meanwhile, would soon embark on the most ambitious campaign of his career. In 2019, he decided to run for president, a dark horse candidate in a crowded field of Democrats looking to unseat the historically unpopular Trump.

Gallego, who served as one of Swalwell's earliest backers in his presidential run, sang Swalwell's praises at the time.

"We're best of friends," he told a Phoenix news anchor. "I know his heart."

Swalwell put together a platform focused on confronting gun violence and increasing college financial aid. That was appealing to a young woman from the East Coast, who joined Swalwell's presidential campaign as soon as she graduated from college, inspired by his gun control proposals.

Swalwell's campaign failed to gain traction, and he dropped out within two months. He hired the woman to work in his district office and soon, she said, Swalwell began sending her messages on Snapchat.

As the Chronicle reported last week, the woman said she was initially flattered as Swalwell pursued her. He later tried to kiss her as she drove him home one night and then asked her to perform oral sex on him in the car as she drove him to an event weeks later.

In September 2019, she said, Swalwell invited her to a group outing and bought her drinks. The woman, who seven years later would be the first one to bring allegations against Swalwell, became so inebriated she doesn't recall exactly how she got to Swalwell's hotel room. She woke up there the next morning, naked, she said, and could feel that they had had sex, though she didn't remember it happening.

But she didn't publicly accuse Swalwell of misconduct until recently, in part because she didn't want to make Swalwell an enemy.

"He was the foundation of my career. I had nothing to fall back on or anyone to vouch for my skills outside of my colleagues in that office and Eric himself," she told the Chronicle. "I knew if I came forward, it would define me and undermine my credibility."

Kelly Dittmar, a political science professor at Rutgers who studies gender dynamics in Congress, said that type of fear is not unfounded because members of Congress have immense sway in determining whether staffers are able to get future jobs in politics.

"That is unfortunately a common occurrence that women don't report," she said. "In politics, it's a small world in some ways. The networking is so much a part of how you get jobs."

Swalwell was on the committee that conducted the impeachment investigation into Trump's dealings with Ukraine, and published a book about the experience in 2020. He gained the trust of then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who appointed him an impeachment manager, essentially a prosecutor in the proceedings, in the president's second impeachment trial after the January 2021 attack on the Capitol. Swalwell issued a second edition of his book to reflect the second trial.

He amassed more and more fans, including on social media, where he presented himself as a fighter for liberal values. But he was also using those platforms to pursue women inappropriately, several said.

One woman, a Bay Area resident whose story is first reported here, said she reached out to Swalwell on Twitter, now known as X, because she had family members stuck overseas. She said he was very helpful, and continued to check in with her after it was resolved.

Within a few weeks, the woman, who was 23 at the time and shared her experience on the condition of anonymity, said Swalwell added her on Snapchat. Some of the conversations were about her future aspirations. He offered to write her a letter of recommendation as she applied to law school. But those messages were mixed with others that were more flirtatious, she said. They started to come late at night, when Swalwell would ask what she was wearing or for photos of her face. She said Swalwell could be very persistent if she did not respond.

The woman said she never sent Swalwell photos or flirted back, but she didn't want to cut him off either because he was offering mentorship for her career. The conversations continued for a few months, she said, but she felt he was trying to take advantage of her.

"It was just so predatory," she said. "Maybe he thought I was a young, naive girl who would be amazed at his position and who he is and his power."

She said Swalwell eventually invited her on three occasions to Washington, D.C., to stay with him, at which point she stopped responding and removed him from Snapchat. Though Swalwell reached out several more times after that, the woman said, she ignored him.

"That was the point where it felt too gross to me," she said.

She shared with the Chronicle screenshots of emails with Swalwell about the situation with her family and a copy of the letter of recommendation he wrote for her. She also shared text messages she sent to friends describing his "creepy" invitations to D.C.

As Swalwell's stature in the Democratic Party grew, the former staffer who said Swalwell sexually assaulted her also tried to maintain a friendly relationship with him so as not to jeopardize her own nascent career.

On April 25, 2024, they met up after a charity gala in New York where Swalwell would be honored for his work in Congress alongside actors and athletes. The woman told the Chronicle she hoped to demonstrate that she was someone Swalwell should take seriously.

"Even though he had hurt me in the past, I felt like he was someone I could trust," she said.

She said her memory of the night is fuzzy because she and Swalwell drank late into the night, but she recalls being in his hotel room and him being on top of her. She remembers moments where she pushed him away and told him no. Her boyfriend at the time encouraged her to report the assault to police, but she decided not to.

"I never thought anyone would believe me, because of how powerful he was," she said. The Manhattan District Attorney's Office announced Saturday that it would investigate the incident.

Swalwell's power was amplified by his close connections to Hollywood. The next year, Swalwell was credited as an executive producer on a film about a Russian journalist who was killed after reporting on corruption in the Kremlin. He signed on as a producer on a different film, about gun violence.

He launched his campaign for governor in November 2025 in an appearance on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," where he walked onstage as the studio audience cheered. He quickly amassed contributions from Oscar-winning actors, labor unions and health care industry groups.

Dozens of state and federal lawmakers endorsed him, including Sen. Adam Schiff, D-California, who called Swalwell his friend in a video urging others to support him.

"I worked closely with Eric when we needed to investigate Donald Trump in his first term and hold him accountable," Schiff said. "I know the Golden State will be in good hands with Eric Swalwell."

Just before the Chronicle published its story detailing the allegations against him by his former staffer, Swalwell was considered a leading candidate to become the next governor. In the most recent independent poll, he was leading all candidates in the race with 18% support. He had addressed an exuberantly supportive crowd of more than 1,000 people on April 7, where he assured them that he was the best pick to lead the state.

Rumors circulating online that he had behaved inappropriately with female staff were false, he told reporters after the event. He chalked them up to political attacks.

The Chronicle published its investigation three days later. Within two hours, Gallego and Schiff rescinded their endorsements. CNN published allegations from three more women. Pelosi urged Swalwell, once her protégé, to drop out of the race for governor.

"I just feel shocked and betrayed and sickened," Schiff told MS NOW in an interview this week. "But my paramount feeling is that I'm grateful these women came forward. … It prevented our state from making a potentially terrible mistake."

Swalwell has continued to deny the allegations. His lawyer has continued to call them a political smear campaign.

But even after Swalwell resigned from Congress on Tuesday, women have continued to come forward.

The revelations about Swalwell's behavior have prompted questions about how someone with so much to lose could behave so recklessly. But Dittmar, the political science professor, said that's a tale as old as time.

"How men behave personally in their relationships is not always reflective of their politics in office," she said. "We see time and again that power can make people think they are invincible."

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