More Accounts Emerge of Creepy Behavior Toward Young Women By Eric Swalwell
May 04, 2026
We certainly haven't heard the last of the accusations against former Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell, following at least two assault accusations that tanked his political career last month.Now CNN has spoken with "more than a dozen" other women who previously had not spoken to the media who al
l describe various levels of creepiness from Swalwell, which taken all together paints him as an aggressive chaser of young women as well as an alleged sexual predator.And with some of these stories, there's a question of "Where did he find the time?", but perhaps being member of Congress leaves you plenty of time to be Snapchatting?A woman who was 19 years old at the time describes a 2021 encounter at a rooftop restaurant in LA where Swalwell was dining, and where she was working as a hostess. She tells CNN that after speaking with him briefly at the restaurant and giving him only her first name, he found her on LinkedIn and contacted her, offering to write her a recommendation despite not knowing her.Sara Azari, an attorney who has been representing Swalwell through his recent accusations, issued statements and denials to CNN about each of the encounters they describe with young woman, denying the details of some and calling others "routine and professional." Azari also said that Swalwell "categorically and unequivocally denies each and every allegation of sexual misconduct and assault that has been leveled against him."Cheri Greven, who later served as his district director and political director, tells CNN that some early alarms were raised for her when, back when Swalwell was just a candidate for Congress in 2012, he repeatedly took meetings at the local Hooters in Dublin.One woman who was a staffer for another congressmember tells CNN that she met Swalwell in 2020 and he allegedly began messaging her on Snapchat in 2021, after she had left the job, and she says they began a consensual sexual sexual relationship that lasted several years. Her quote, "His stories would be his, like, congressional content, but then he would be sending me dick pics."A former congressional staffer also describes getting flirty messages from Swalwell soon after she met him, on Snapchat, when she was just a college intern on the Hill. She describes "overly friendly" behavior, including cornering her in the Democratic Cloak Room, and "touching my shoulder, hugging me a bit too long."Emma Davidson Tribbs, a founding director of the National Women’s Defense League, tells CNN that Swalwell's apparently rampant behavior while in office represents a serious liability."It opens people up to a level of blackmail and influence that you don’t want a public servant to have,” Davidson Tribbs tells CNN. "This is a liability for democracy – it makes all of us less safe."And all of these encounters allegedly happened in the years before and after Swalwell is accused of assaulting a 21-year-old former staffer in a hotel room, and assaulting Lonna Drewes, a former model and software engineer, who accused Swalwell of drugging and raping her in a hotel room in Los Angeles in 2018.CNN also has dug up a lurid and fairly bad-sounding poem Swalwell wrote and published in a student newspaper as an undergrad in 2001 which suggests some questionable sexual behavior, including lines like "She chased and I ran/ I chased and she ran" and "My anxious arm she bit – my scar is beautiful." (An attorney for Swalwell told CNN that the poem, titled "Hungover From Burgandy," "is plainly a teenage metaphor about drinking — not sex.")And CNN resurfaced an ironic-in-retrospect comment by Swalwell from a September 2018 TV interview in which he was commenting on the sexual misconduct and assault accusations against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh."What are the chances that three or four women, independently, who never met each other would have similar experiences with one person?” Swallwell asked, rhetorically, at the time. Either Kavanaugh “committed these horrific acts or he is the single unluckiest person in the world for these people to conspire and make up lies against him," he said.Related: Eric Swalwell Resigns From Congress, But Says That Effort to Swiftly Expel Him Is 'Wrong'Top image: Photo via Getty Images
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