State officials investigating Swalwell for possible campaign finance violations
State officials are investigating whether former Rep. Eric Swalwell improperly used his campaign funds in his bid for governor to pay an attorney he hired after being accused of sexual misconduct.
Swalwell has spent more than $300,000 in campaign funds on Los Angeles attorney Sara Azari since the allegations first broke on April 10, when a former staffer accused the former East Bay congressman of sexual assault and three others accused him of sexual misconduct in separate stories in CNN and The San Francisco Chronicle. A second woman accused him of rape on April 14.
Swalwell denied the accusations but dropped out of the governor’s race and resigned from Congress. His campaign account remained active.
Kendall Bonebrake, chief of the Fair Political Practices Commission’s enforcement division, sent a letter to Swalwell’s campaign on May 1 asking for more details on an initial $40,000 Swalwell reported spending on Azari for “professional services” in an April 23 campaign finance filing. Bonebrake said the FPPC was responding to a complaint they’d received but did not provide details.
In another filing dated May 21, Swalwell reported spending an additional $273,251 in campaign funds on Azari, a self-described criminal defense and white collar trial attorney, for “campaign legal compliance.”
In a follow up letter to Swalwell dated May 28, Bonebrake’s deputy, Christopher Burton, said the FPPC had begun an investigation into potential violations of California campaign finance law.
“We have not made any determination about the possible violations,” Burton wrote.
The investigation was first reported by The California Post.
Swalwell and Azari did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment. But in response to a previous query from The Bee on April 24, Holly Baird, a public relations professional who said she was speaking on behalf of Azari, suggested the $40,000 payment did not necessarily constitute payment for legal defense.
“Swalwell is permitted to investigate the false acts alleged against his campaign,” Baird said in an email. “To suggest Ms. Azari is representing him criminally on these false allegations is an opinion and not fact. Ms. Azari, also a nationally recognized commentator, has a practice that extends well beyond criminal defense.”
NOTUS reported in April that a private investigator who said they worked for a firm Azari hired called former Swalwell staffers as part of an investigation into the accusations against him.
Azarialso went on air to defend Swalwell in an April 14 interview with NewsNation.
Swalwell, who lead some polls in the governor’s race before the accusations emerged, has so far garnered less than 1% of the vote in the June 2 primary.
