Rep. Eric Swalwell, a Democrat from the San Francisco Bay Area, said Monday that he is resigning after allegations that he sexually assaulted a former staff member and engaged in misconduct with other women.
The accusations, published in articles by the San Francisco Chronicle and CNN, prompted rescinded endorsements in the governor鈥檚 race, a criminal investigation and, now, Swalwell鈥檚 exit from politics. The lawmaker denied what he described as 鈥渢he serious false allegation made against me,鈥� but apologized to his family, staff and constituents 鈥渇or mistakes in judgment I鈥檝e made in my past鈥� in a statement posted on social media Monday.
The announcement from Swalwell, 45, marked a dishonorable end to what had been a very public-facing and ambitious Washington career founded on cable news appearances and criticisms of President Donald Trump. It came one day after he suspended his campaign for California governor, a race in which he had been a Democratic front-runner to succeed Gov. Gavin Newsom, who cannot run again because of term limits.
The House was expected to vote this week on whether to expel Swalwell and a growing number of Swalwell鈥檚 colleagues 鈥� many of them Democratic women 鈥� said they would support forcing him out. The House Ethics Committee had also announced it would investigate the allegations.
鈥淓xpelling anyone from Congress without due process, within days of an allegation being made, is wrong,鈥� Swalwell said. 鈥淏ut it鈥檚 also wrong for my constituents to have me distracted from my duties.鈥�
He did not offer a timeline for his resignation. Under California law, Newsom can decide whether to call a special election when a congressional office becomes vacant this close to a regularly scheduled election.
California鈥檚 primary is on June 2, and Swalwell was not running for reelection to the House because he had been running for governor. Six Democrats and two Republicans are running in the heavily Democratic district in the suburbs east of San Francisco.
A former prosecutor and local politician in the East Bay suburb of Dublin, California, Swalwell had in recent years raised his profile as a vocal critic of the Trump administration. He became a fixture on cable news and served as an impeachment manager in the case the House brought against Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the Capitol.
He is married and has three young children.
Swalwell鈥檚 announcement came hours after the House Ethics Committee, a bipartisan panel, had said that it was investigating the accusations against him. While the committee has been criticized for its slow pace, its investigations into lawmakers are generally thorough and have produced damning public reports in recent years.
The committee鈥檚 inquiry would have offered another opportunity to examine the allegations against Swalwell without the same legal requirements as a criminal investigation. But Swalwell鈥檚 resignation puts him outside of the committee鈥檚 jurisdiction and is all but certain to bring the investigation to a swift end.
It was not immediately clear what information the committee had already gathered, or whether the panel intended to make any of it public.
Swalwell鈥檚 political career imploded quickly after the allegations were made public. Less than a week ago, as rumors swirled on social media, Swalwell defiantly told reporters at a town hall in Sacramento that any accusations of sexual impropriety against him were false.
Then, on Friday, the Chronicle published the account of the former staff member, who accused Swalwell of sexually assaulting her on multiple occasions, including while she was too intoxicated to consent. Later that day, CNN published a report in which four women, including one who appeared to be the same former staffer, described sexual misconduct by Swalwell. The New York Times has not confirmed the sexual assault accusations.
Ally Sammarco, who was named in the CNN report, spoke to the Times and said Swalwell had sent her inappropriate messages on Snapchat in 2021, including unsolicited nude images.
Swalwell immediately denied the allegations in the Chronicle鈥檚 report. Later on Friday, in a video statement, he again insisted the sexual assault allegations were false, though he also apologized to his wife.
But he quickly began to lose endorsements from his congressional colleagues in the governor鈥檚 race, including from powerful allies. And while some initially stopped short of calling for his resignation, by Monday it was clear that the allegations could launch a string of expulsion votes aimed at both Swalwell and other lawmakers facing allegations of misconduct.
Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., a close friend of Swalwell, said that he had called Swalwell shortly after the Chronicle article was published and told him to drop out of the race.
鈥淲hen you read the article, it is very clear 鈥� these women were victimized, and there was no two ways about it,鈥� Gallego said. 鈥淎nd he needed to get out, he needed to resign. He should have been expelled, he鈥檚 doing all of that himself.鈥�
He added that he had no sense that Swalwell had been behaving inappropriately with his staff members. 鈥淚t鈥檚 like he was leading a double life,鈥� he said. 鈥淥ur kids were in baseball camp together. He caught my family by surprise, he caught his own family by surprise. This is not who we had seen.鈥�
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., who was leading the push to expel Swalwell, said that he did 鈥渢he right thing by resigning鈥� but called for a 鈥渇ull-fledged criminal investigation.鈥�
Shortly after Swalwell鈥檚 announcement, a second lawmaker facing possible expulsion, Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, announced he would step down from Congress in the coming days.
Gonzales had suspended his reelection bid after admitting to an affair with a staff member who later took her own life, but he had resisted resigning from the House.
Lawmakers had been expected to vote on both expulsions as a pair, arguing that the nature of the accusations outweighed partisan political concerns. Rep. Teresa Leger Fern谩ndez, D-N.M., had said earlier in a social media post that she had still planned to move ahead with a resolution to expel Gonzales.
This article originally appeared in .
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