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Mina Kim: Welcome to Forum. I’m Mina Kim. Voters in Eric Swalwell’s former Bay Area congressional district are reacting to a growing number of sexual abuse allegations against him. Here’s Melissa Estepa of Hayward.
Melissa Estepa (clip): He was someone I thought was a rising star, and I was looking forward to supporting him. But it’s just another man in power abusing women, so it’s not surprising—but it’s still very disappointing.
Mina Kim: Swalwell, who has called the allegations false and politically motivated, had been among the frontrunners in California’s governor’s race before suspending his campaign over the weekend and then resigning from Congress. Yesterday, after four women came forward alleging rape, unwanted touching, and sexual harassment, a fifth woman, Lonna Drewes, came forward alleging sexual assault.
Lonna Drewes (clip): We were supposed to go to a political event, and he said he needed to get paperwork from his hotel room. When I arrived at his hotel room, I was already incapacitated, and I couldn’t move my arms or my body. He raped me, and he choked me.
Mina Kim: Listeners, how are you taking in these developments? Did you vote for Swalwell? Were you considering him for governor? What impact do you think this will have on broader efforts to rein in sexual misconduct? A warning that this hour includes discussion of rape.
Joining me now are the reporters who separately broke stories about the accusations against Congressman Swalwell. Alexei Koseff is Washington, D.C., correspondent for the San Francisco Chronicle. Alexei, thanks for being on.
Alexei Koseff: Thanks for having me.
Mina Kim: Allison Gordon is also with us, a reporter and producer for CNN Investigates. Allison, appreciate you being here.
Allison Gordon: Thank you so much. I’m really glad to be here.
Mina Kim: Alexei, you first broke the story last week of a former staffer accusing Eric Swalwell of sexual assault. Tell us what she’s alleging.
Alexei Koseff: This is a story that unfolds over several years. It begins with a young woman who, at age 21, joined Congressman Swalwell’s district office and quickly got his attention. He began communicating with her on Snapchat, sending explicit messages and nude photos—what she now describes as grooming her toward something more, eventually pressuring her for sex.
The most serious allegations involve two incidents. In 2019, she says they were out drinking, she blacked out, and woke up in his hotel room the next day, naked in his bed, with the sense they had had sex but without clear memory of what happened.
Then, about five years later, after she no longer worked for him, she says they met again after a charity event in New York City. She again became blackout drunk, woke up in his hotel room, and recalls fragments of the night in which she says he forced himself on her. She says she tried to push him off, told him no, and later had bruising and vaginal bleeding—signs, she says, of sexual assault.
Mina Kim: Allison, you also spoke with that staffer and reported on three additional women alleging misconduct. Now there’s a fifth woman as well. What similarities have you heard among their stories?
Allison Gordon: As Alexei said, the allegations from the former staffer are extremely serious. She spoke with our colleague Pamela Brown, with her identity protected, about those claims, including rape.
The other women’s stories vary, but there are common threads. They’re all women in their twenties with Democratic political leanings who admired the congressman and believed in his policies. Several described being surprised that he was communicating with them at all—one said she initially thought she was being catfished because she couldn’t believe a U.S. congressman would give her that kind of attention.
That same woman, another Jane Doe, described becoming highly intoxicated and waking up in Swalwell’s hotel room with only fragmented memories of what occurred.
Mina Kim: We invited Swalwell to join us but did not receive a response. His lawyer says he vehemently denies the most recent allegation. Here’s Eric Swalwell in a video posted to his social media accounts on Friday.
Eric Swalwell (clip): These allegations of sexual assault are flat false. They’re absolutely false. They did not happen. They have never happened, and I will fight them with everything that I have. They also come on the eve of an election where I have been the frontrunner candidate for governor in California. I do not suggest in any way that I’m perfect or that I’m a saint. I have certainly made mistakes in judgment in my past, but those mistakes are between me and my wife. And to her, I apologize deeply for putting her in this position. I also apologize to you if in any way you have doubted your support for me. But I think you know who I am.
Mina Kim: You can share your reactions by calling 866-733-6786, emailing forum@kqed.org, or reaching us on Discord or social media at KQED Forum.
Do you live in Swalwell’s district? Did you vote for him? Were you considering him for governor? What do you think about the response from party leaders—and the broader implications for addressing sexual misconduct?
Alexei, Swalwell suggests these allegations are politically motivated and possibly coordinated, given the timing. What’s your reaction?
Alexei Koseff: It’s been interesting to watch how his response has evolved. Initially, there were online rumors, and he flatly denied everything, saying he had never done anything wrong. But once our reporting and CNN’s reporting came out, he shifted to acknowledging “mistakes” while continuing to deny anything criminal.
He’s walking a tightrope—maintaining innocence while implicitly acknowledging some wrongdoing. It’s also clear he didn’t anticipate the scope of what would emerge. When we sent detailed questions outlining our reporting, we received a one-sentence response. He did not appear prepared for the volume of allegations that followed.
Mina Kim: Allison, what was your process for verifying these claims?
Allison Gordon: It was extremely thorough. At CNN, we have a very high bar for reporting on allegations like these. Much of the communication happened on Snapchat, where messages disappear, so we had to be creative.
We corroborated accounts by speaking with people the women confided in at the time—friends, family, coworkers. We reviewed text messages and other communications, including WhatsApp. We also verified the congressman’s phone number and Snapchat username.
Additionally, after we sent detailed questions to Swalwell, two of the women in our story were served cease-and-desist letters in the middle of the night. Despite that, they stood firmly by their accounts.
Mina Kim: Alexei, anything to add about your reporting process?
Alexei Koseff: Very similar. We took these claims seriously but also did extensive verification. We reviewed documents, including some medical records, and cross-checked timelines. We also looked at things like social media posts to confirm Swalwell’s location at key times, and those aligned with the accounts we were given. That helped strengthen our confidence in the reporting.
Mina Kim: We’re speaking with Alexei Koseff of the San Francisco Chronicle and Allison Gordon of CNN Investigates. We’re inviting your reactions—both to the allegations and to how leaders are responding, as well as the broader implications for the governor’s race and accountability around sexual misconduct.
You can email forum@kqed.org or call 866-733-6786.
Ally Sammarco, who says she received explicit photos from Swalwell, told CBS she hopes coming forward prevents further harm.
Ally Sammarco (clip): I think we just prevented another 30 to 40 years potentially of him harming people if he were to stay in Congress. So in that sense, I think we have served justice for his future victims that won’t exist anymore.
Mina Kim: We’ll have more after the break. I’m Mina Kim.
