Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) formally resigned from Congress Tuesday afternoon, less than 48 hours after suspending his California gubernatorial campaign amid a growing wave of sexual misconduct allegations against him.
Swalwell Resigns
As reported on Tuesday’s AM Update, Swalwell was one of two congressmen who announced their departures Monday night due to mounting political pressure on Capitol Hill.
Monday afternoon, the House Ethics Committee launched a formal probe into the allegations against the seven-term congressman, a process that would have allowed the committee to recommend potential disciplinary action to the full House.
But before that process could play out – and with a vote to expel him looming – Swalwell shared he would be stepping down. “I am deeply sorry to my family, staff, and constituents for mistakes in judgment I’ve made in my past,” he wrote in a statement. “I will fight the serious, false allegation made against me. However, I must take responsibility and ownership for the mistakes I did make.”
He went on to write that while he believes expulsion without due process would be wrong, it would also be wrong for his constituents to be represented by someone distracted by the controversy.
About an hour after Swalwell’s announcement, Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) revealed he will also step down amid personal scandals of his own. “There is a season for everything and God has a plan for us all,” he wrote on X. “When Congress returns tomorrow, I will file my retirement from office. It has been my privilege to serve the great people of Texas.”
Gonzales, a married father of six, had already announced he would not seek reelection after admitting to an affair with a staffer who later died by suicide. Earlier this year, The San Antonio Express reported on lewd texts by the congressman to his late staffer, shared with the outlet by her husband.
That matter had also been under investigation by the House Ethics Committee, though Gonzales denied any responsibility for the woman’s death. The pair of resignations mean the balance of power in the House should remain unchanged.
More Allegations Emerge
While Swalwell’s political career may be over, the allegations against him are not. Two accusers spoke out on camera for the first time on CBS Tuesday morning. Annika Albrecht said she started communicating with Swalwell when she was a college student and he offered to stay in touch after meeting with her student group in Washington, D.C.
“He offered to mentor me,” she recalled. “That was, as someone who knew virtually nothing about politics at the time or no one, that was just an incredibly generous offer that I felt very lucky to have.”
Albrecht told CBS that Swalwell, who was then in his late thirties, created a group chat with all the students and then added her as a friend on Snapchat. She said their conversations were initially about politics, but his messages soon turned flirtatious.
“Ultimately, it reached a point where he invited me to a hotel to meet him. It was very clear what the connotation was,” Albrecht said. “At that point, I completely stopped responding. What I keep thinking back to is how lucky I am that I didn’t go to that hotel.”
Ally Sammarco, who first revealed her story to CNN, also spoke to CBS Mornings and explained how her messages with Swalwell turned explicit. In 2021, Sammarco said she sent the congressman a supportive message on Twitter (now X) and, to her surprise, he messaged her back. She recounted that she was initially “excited” because she was “a low-level staffer” and “he was this established figure in Democratic politics.”
After exchanging text messages, Sammarco said Swalwell asked if she too was on Snapchat. Messages and photos shared on the platform automatically delete after they are viewed, and that is where the tone of their exchanges changed.
“It started out as professional and platonic and then, slowly, they became more and more explicit, asking me what I was wearing,” she alleged. “Then one night, he was on a trip, and he was laying in his hotel room bed, and then he sent me a photo of his penis.”
The Fifth Accuser
But that wasn’t all. A fifth accuser came forward Tuesday to accuse the former congressman of sexual assault. Lonna Drewes, who said she met Swalwell while working as a model and software engineer in Beverly Hills in 2018, accused him of rape during a press conference with her attorney, Gloria Allred’s daughter Lisa Bloom.
“He raped me, and he choked me. And while he was choking me, I lost consciousness and I thought I died,” Drewes alleged. “It had a profound impact on my mental health. I self-medicated in an unhealthy way. I did not want to live anymore.”
Drewes claimed the incident happened in 2018 after she met Swalwell and he offered to help her with business and political connections. She said the rape occurred when she agreed to meet him under the guise of going to a political event. Drewes accused Swalwell of drugging her drink prior to raping her in his hotel room. She recalled having one glass of wine and said she could not consent.
She said she did not report the alleged rape at the time for fear of retribution. “My delay in taking action against Eric was driven by fear, not doubt – fear of his political power, his background as an attorney, his family,” Drewes said.
Instead, Drewes said she was spurred on after seeing the stories of the four other women who have accused Swalwell of sexual misconduct. One of the accusers, a former congressional staffer, told The San Francisco Chronicle and CNN that Swalwell sexually assaulted her in 2019 and 2024 and the encounters occurred while she was intoxicated and could not consent. The woman, who remains anonymous, acknowledged she remained in contact with him and even initiated communication before the second incident. Megyn took a deep dive into those allegations here.
Media Malpractice
On Tuesday’s edition of The Megyn Kelly Show, the fellas from Ruthless – Josh Holmes, Michael Duncan, and John Ashbrook – maintained that, contrary to the feigned disbelief from Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Ruben Gallego, and the like, Swalwell’s behavior was a surprise to no one in Washington or Democrat politics.
“[Pelosi] is lying through her teeth, as she often does, but the point is Democrats have gotten away with this for a very long time and they always do,” Ashbrook said. “When you look in other states – and maybe it’s not as explosive as the Swalwell situation – but in every single state where Democrats have full control of not just the legislature and the governor’s mansion but also the media, they are never asked tough questions. Nobody ever presses them… So, I mean, I blame Democrats, but I also blame the media here.”
In Ashbrook’s view, there is only one reason why the media finally got around to doing its job. “One thing that we know about the mainstream media is that they only attack a Democrat if it’s in service of a second Democrat,” he said.
In this case, it may be in the service of all the other Dems running for governor in California because Republican Steve Hilton is currently leading the open primary field. Prior to dropping out, polls showed Swalwell in second and another Republican, Chad Bianco, in third.
In the open primary system, the top two vote-getters move on to the general regardless of party affiliation. With early voting set to begin May 5, the crowded – and divided – Democrat field had led some to wonder whether the top two candidates could end up being Republicans. The two Democrats most poised to benefit from Swalwell’s exit are former Congresswoman Katie Porter and billionaire businessman Tom Steyer.
“In a weird way, Hilton being so successful in this jungle primary is the reason all this Swalwell stuff is coming out. They are so nervous they are going to get locked out of the runoff in this thing,” Duncan said. “The Democrat establishment, these other campaigns, the whole grassroots component of the Democratic Party are now trying to, you know, get rid of Swalwell for that reason.”
To that point, Megyn wondered if the San Francisco Chronicle, and CNN, and CBS News would have been so eager to cover these accusations if the general election was already set between Hilton and Swalwell.
Holmes predicted it would have been “a real catch and kill situation” to quash the story. At a bare minimum, Megyn believes the allegations would be reported differently. “They would have been doing the fair and balanced report that I did yesterday, which, you know, brought a little bile into my stomach because I have zero desire to help Eric Swalwell,” she said. “But I did take a hard look at the allegations, and I raised points about how she sent him the nudes first, according to her testimony.”
“They would have read all that and they would have been like, ‘She’s not really a credible accuser; I don’t think we can go with it,’ if this is during the middle of a general campaign… That’s how it would have gone down,” Megyn concluded. “But they all jumped on board… [and were] queuing up these women within hours because they knew he had to go. The stakes are too high.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Ruthless by tuning in to episode 1,295 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s The Megyn Kelly Channel (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.