Politics
Swalwell’s former female staffer drops bombshell allegations of sexual assault, exposing himself: report
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Sexual harassment allegations have been amplified online by Democrat-aligned politicos targeting Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., one of the leading Democratic candidates in California’s gubernatorial race.
Amid repeated denials and cease and desist letters sent by Swalwell’s lawyer, one of the alleged victims shared her story publicly for the first time, accusing Swalwell of taking advantage of her while she was intoxicated on multiple occasions, according to a bombshell report published by the San Francisco Chronicle Friday. The alleged victim’s story also included claims that Swalwell pressured her to send naked pictures of herself and sent sexually explicit photos of his own, pulled out his private parts while driving in a car with her and requesting she perform oral sex on him, among other incidents the victim said exposed how Swalwell treated her.
The unnamed female accuser, who spoke to the San Francisco Chronicle, reportedly worked for Swalwell for about two years and revealed that he started pursuing her, despite being married, shortly after she was hired as a young 21-year-old staffer in his district office. On multiple occasions, the young staffer recalls blacking out from alcohol consumption, before waking up naked in Swalwell’s hotel bed with signs she had engaged in intercourse. Swalwell allegedly distanced himself after the incident, and their relationship faded, before reuniting when she no longer worked for him, during which another incident allegedly took place.
DEM SENATOR RIPPED FOR ‘SMEAR’ OF FEMALE ACTIVIST ADVOCATING FOR SWALWELL’S ACCUSERS
Representative Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., is running for governor of California in a crowded field of Democratic PArty hopefuls. (John Lamparski/Getty Images)
“Eric Swalwell should immediately drop out,” Democratic strategist Bhavik Lathia said after the San Francisco Chronicle’s report dropped. “It is damning.”
Former San Jose Mayor and fellow Democratic Party gubernatorial candidate in California, Matt Mahan, also called on Swalwell to “drop out.”
“To the survivor who risked everything to come forward – I believe you,” he said. “To the Democratic Party – you’d better hold him accountable,” Mahan said.
“If we don’t, we have no credibility asking anyone else to do the same,” he continued.
Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., a longtime friend of Swalwell who faced backlash earlier this week for trying to discredit allegations against the California Democrat, posted on Friday that he “regret[s] having come to his defense on social media prior to knowing all the information. I am equally as shocked and upset about what has transpired.”
“What is described is indefensible. Women who come forward with accounts like this deserve to be heard with respect, not questioned or dismissed,” Gallego said. “I am withdrawing my endorsement of Congressman Swalwell, effective immediately.”
Swalwell’s team did not respond to Fox News’ request for comment, but he recently said during a press gaggle that the allegations are “false,” including allegations that Swalwell previously pressured female staffers to sign non-disclosure agreements so they cannot speak out, or that he was involved in an alleged hush money settlement.
“It’s false. And also some of the allegations I’ve seen, which is that we’ve had NDAs in the office – never. There’s never been an allegation, and there’s never been a settlement,” Swalwell insisted this week.
“This false, outrageous rumor is being spread 27 days before an election begins by flailing opponents who have sadly teamed up with MAGA conspiracy theorists because they know Eric Swalwell is the frontrunner in this race,” Micah Beasley, a spokesperson for Swalwell, also said on Tuesday.
Cheyenne Hunt, a former Capitol Hill staffer who is currently a nonprofit director at the group Gen-Z for Change, is among the voices acting as a proxy for alleged Swalwell accusers and has been helping amplify their stories. On Friday, she blasted Swalwell for “tak[ing] a page out of the Trump playbook by attempting to silence women,” with cease and desist letters he allegedly sent out late Thursday night ahead of the San Francisco Chronicle’s report sharing a first-hand account from one of Swalwell’s alleged accusers.
Then-Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., seen pictured with Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., and their wives during a 2021 trip to Qatar, which was funded by the U.S.-Qatar Business Council. (FOX NEWS/Tucker Carlson Tonight)
Fox News Digital has not independently verified the allegations from the report.
The alleged victim, who began working for Swalwell during his short-lived presidential campaign in 2019, said a married Swalwell, who was 38, began pursuing her, including through messages on Snapchat, which allows users to send photos that subsequently disappear after someone has looked at them. She claimed the relationship rapidly progressed as Swalwell began asking for pictures of her face, then her naked body and eventually her genitalia. When messaging, the victim alleged Swalwell would sometimes send shirtless selfies or other images of his own genitalia.
SWALWELL THREATENS FBI WITH LEGAL ACTION AS PATEL REPORTEDLY WEIGHS ‘FANG FANG’ FILES RELEASE
Swalwell tried to kiss the alleged victim in her car when she drove him home from a donor meeting one night, and on another occasion he allegedly pulled out his penis while in the vehicle and asked her to perform oral sex on him. She admitted to doing so in a parking lot, but soon stopped out of fear someone might see them.
Meanwhile, in September 2019, the alleged victim, who was then working in Swalwell’s Castro Valley district office, reportedly said Swalwell invited her out for dinner and drinks when she drank too much and blacked out. She claimed to have not even remembered leaving the restaurant, but was woken up in Swalwell’s hotel room the next day with vaginal soreness indicative of sexual intercourse. She also reportedly had a brief memory of Swalwell sucking her toes.
After the September 2019 incident at Swalwell’s hotel, the victim said the pair’s relationship faded as Swalwell distanced himself from her and began treating her more formally during public interactions. She eventually stopped working for Swalwell, but stayed in politics and noted Swalwell would occasionally remain in touch with her, including reaching out when she was looking for a job.
However, she claimed that five years later, while attending an April 2024 charity event Swalwell was being honored at, the pair reunited. She was not working for Swalwell at this later date, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The woman indicated that she and Swalwell went out for drinks after the event, during which, once again, she became inebriated and could only remember bits and pieces about the night.
“Even though he had hurt me in the past, I felt like he was someone I could trust,” the alleged victim said, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. “Because we shared this secret together, it pulled me closer to him.”
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) speaks during a House Judiciary Committee hearing with FBI Director Kash Patel in the Rayburn House Office Building on Sept. 17, 2025. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
According to the San Francisco Chronicle’s reporting on the alleged victim’s experiences, one moment she did remember from the night was pushing Swalwell away and telling him “no” as he allegedly tried to force her to have sex with him. The woman reportedly texted a friend after the incident telling her she had been sexually assaulted by Swalwell. Other messages reviewed by the San Francisco Chronicle reportedly showed the victim indicating she had “blacked out” but “woke up once during it and even told him to stop at one point.”
“This happened one other time when I was working with him, but I convinced myself I was an equal party in it even though same pattern: I blacked out and he had sex with me,” the alleged victim wrote, referring to the 2019 incident, according to the San Francisco Chronicle’s reporting.
ERIC SWALWELL CAMPAIGN SETS OFF ALARM BELLS AFTER ACCEPTING $25K DONATION FROM CCP-TIED LAWYER: ‘OUTRAGEOUS’
The outlet also indicated it spoke with the friend the victim was allegedly texting, as well as the woman’s then-boyfriend who she reportedly told about the assault the next day. The boyfriend reportedly encouraged her to report Swalwell at the time.
However, she did not go to the authorities at the time, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, because she was afraid she would not be believed. Medical records reportedly showed she did obtain a pregnancy and STD test a week following the incident.
Swalwell subsequently messaged the alleged victim after the 2024 incident and told her not to tell anyone about their interaction that night, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. “He even sent me a message: you said you didn’t remember anything last time i hope you do now,” the alleged victim reportedly texted her friend three days after the incident. “And i said: yeah I’m trying to forget thanks.”
“He was sending messages like we just had a romantic encounter like he knows what he’s doing,” the alleged victim also allegedly wrote to her friend at the time. “He was gaslighting me into thinking it was consensual.”
Swalwell’s alleged victim began talking to the San Francisco news outlet roughly a month ago, as she was weighing whether to go public with her allegations as they began anonymously surfacing online.
The victim was confused how the rumors began, considering she only told family and a small group of friends about the incident. The victim reportedly called the Swalwell campaign in March to see if her name had surfaced among the rumored victims, to which one of Swalwell’s staffers reportedly asked her to vouch for Swalwell.
“He was so confident that I would stay silent that he wasn’t scared,” she said of Swalwell.
“I have no skin in the game of who becomes governor of California, but I feel people have a right to know whether the person who leads a state that is a safe haven for so many women actually treats women with dignity and will protect their rights,” continued the woman, who still works on Capitol Hill, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. “No one protected me from him, and so I have to protect the other young women like me who aspire to work in this field and he could prey upon.”
From left, Xavier Becerra, Steve Hilton, Matt Mahan, Tom Steyer, Tony Thurmond, Antonio Villaraigosa and Betty Yee stand on the stage during the California gubernatorial candidate debate Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Laure Andrillon)
Late Thursday night, Swalwell’s attorney, Elias Dabaie, sent a cease-and-desist letter that Hunt, one of the individuals amplifying Swalwell’s accuser’s claims, argues is an effort to intimidate those trying to speak up about Swalwell’s history with women.
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“Today we learned [Swalwell] is intimidating survivors, serving cease and desist letters on those coming forward with stories of sexual harassment and abuse. He sent this threat in the dead of night — another attempt to delay the truth,” Hunt wrote on social media, attaching a copy of the first letter of the cease and desist letter she claimed to have obtained.
“This is what it looks like when powerful men get caught,” Hunt continued. “These cease and desists are a disgusting abuse of power against brave women who are courageously working together to share their stories. It begs the question: if Swalwell has done nothing wrong, as his campaign claims, why not let the women tell their stories in the light of day? Our team remains steadfast. We will not relent. The women will not recant.”
Then-Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., seen pictured with Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., and their wives during a 2021 trip to Qatar, funded by the U.S.-Qatar Business Council. (FOX NEWS/Tucker Carlson Tonight)
The Los Angeles Times reported Friday that it had confirmed the authenticity of the letter. Fox News Digital reached out to the attorney who sent the letter to confirm the authenticity of the letter independently, but did not immediately receive a response.
Politics
Secret Service Shoots and Wounds Armed Man Near Washington Monument
The Secret Service shot and wounded an armed man on Monday afternoon just south of the White House in a burst of gunfire that also grazed a young bystander in an area packed with pedestrians, officials said.
There was no indication that the man, who was taken to a hospital with multiple gunshot wounds, was targeting anyone in the executive complex, Chris McDonald, a congressional affairs official with the Secret Service, wrote in an email to Congress after the episode.
“President Trump was not in any danger, and there is currently no known nexus between the incident and the White House,” Mr. McDonald wrote.
A motorcade with Vice President JD Vance had passed through the area — a heavily trafficked route for official vehicles, as well as people visiting the nearby Washington Monument — shortly before the confrontation took place, officials told reporters.
The condition of the armed man, who was not identified, is not known. A firearm was recovered at the scene. A 15-year-old boy who was shot was being treated for a non-life-threatening gunshot wound, officials said. Matt Quinn, the deputy director of the Secret Service, told reporters that investigators think the boy was shot by the gunman, but he later appeared to hedge his earlier statement when asked again.
“We’ll let the doctors figure that out,” Mr. Quinn said during a news conference near the scene.
No law enforcement officials were injured.
The episode began around 3:30 p.m. near the intersection of 15th Street Southwest and Independence Avenue, when agents walked up to a man “who appeared to be carrying a weapon,” Mr. McDonald wrote.
As they approached, he ran off and shot at them, Mr. Quinn told reporters.
The agents fired back and then apprehended the man, he said.
The shooting took place a little more than a week after a gunman stormed a security checkpoint at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner and shot a Secret Service agent in an attack that officials said was targeting administration officials.
On Monday, President Trump was holding an event at the White House around the time of the shooting. The Secret Service ordered reporters who were on the North Lawn of the White House to go into the press briefing room.
The police blocked off a wide stretch of streets east of the Washington Monument until the start of the evening rush hour, frustrating drivers who use the major highway bridges connecting the District of Columbia and Northern Virginia over the Potomac River.
The Metropolitan Police Department had said in a social media post that its officers were on the scene and that roads in the area would be closed for several hours. The police department is further investigating, Mr. Quinn told reporters.
Dozens of law enforcement officials, as well as a substantial contingent of National Guard members in green uniforms, flooded the area after the shooting, snarling traffic and confusing tourists on a postcard-perfect spring day.
Hundreds of members of the National Guard remain stationed in Washington even after the Trump administration withdrew many of them last year. They were deployed in August following Mr. Trump’s takeover of Washington’s police department.
Politics
Civil rights groups file lawsuit seeking to block Texas law allowing cops to arrest illegal migrants
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A coalition of civil rights groups filed a new lawsuit on Monday seeking to halt parts of a Texas law that would allow police officers in the Lone Star State to arrest migrants suspected of crossing into the U.S. across the U.S.-Mexico border illegally.
The law is set to take effect next week after a federal appeals court vacated a lower court ruling last week that had prevented its enforcement since 2024. In that ruling, he appeals court vacated an injunction that had blocked the law, finding that the plaintiffs did not have standing to sue.
Senate Bill 4 established a state-level crime for entering the country illegally and authorized state magistrates to order certain individuals to leave the country if they are convicted.
Courts have long maintained that immigration enforcement has historically been treated as the responsibility of the federal government, but Texas Republicans attempted to challenge that precedent when they approved S.B. 4.
TEXAS BILL REQUIRING SHERIFFS TO COLLABORATE WITH ICE GIVEN INITIAL APPROVAL BY STATE HOUSE
Civil rights groups filed a new lawsuit to halt parts of a Texas law that would allow police officers to arrest migrants suspected of crossing into the U.S. illegally. (David Peinado/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The Texas Civil Rights Project, American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of Texas argued that the law is unconstitutional, noting that immigration law is exclusively the responsibility of the federal government and that federal law should preempt the state law.
The groups are attempting to block four provisions of S.B. 4 — the creation of a crime for re-entering the country illegally, even if a person has since obtained legal status such as a green card; granting state magistrates authority to issue deportation orders; the creation of a crime for failing to comply with a magistrate’s deportation orders; and the requirement that magistrates continue a prosecution even if a person has a pending immigration case under federal law, such as an asylum claim.
“Our fight against S.B. 4 isn’t over until justice wins,” Kate Gibson Kumar, an attorney at the Texas Civil Rights Project, said in a statement. “S.B. 4 is not only unconstitutional, but a vile law that uses our Texas resources to harm communities across our state. The Texas Civil Rights Project will keep fighting to protect Texas communities from the wrath of S.B. 4.”
Cody Wofsy, deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, argued that S.B. 4 is “cruel and illegal,” adding that the groups “will keep fighting it until it is permanently struck down.”
The Texas Civil Rights Project, American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of Texas argued that the law is unconstitutional. (Getty Images)
“Every court to have reached the merits of laws like S.B. 4 has found them to be unconstitutional,” he said.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
The law is scheduled to go into effect on May 15 unless another court takes action.
“S.B. 4 would transform our police and judges into immigration agents — threatening neighbors who have families here, who have lived here for years, even those who have legal status,” said Adriana Piñon, legal director at the ACLU of Texas. “Immigration enforcement is exclusively the federal government’s arena, and no state has ever claimed the power Texas threatens to wield here. We are taking this back to court to defend our Texas communities.”
TRUMP DOJ DROPS BIDEN-ERA CHALLENGE TO TEXAS BORDER SECURITY LAW
Courts have long maintained that immigration enforcement is the sole responsibility of the federal government. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
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Monday’s lawsuit is the latest legal challenge to the Texas law, which was passed by state lawmakers amid an uptick in migrant crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border during the Biden administration.
Another lawsuit had been led by some of the same advocacy groups that filed Monday’s challenge. The Biden administration also initially sought to halt the law in 2024 before the Trump administration terminated the Department of Justice’s involvement in the lawsuit last year as part of the president’s mass deportation agenda.
Politics
Fresh attacks in the Gulf spark fears of renewed war with Iran
BEIRUT — Confusion reigned on Monday over the fate of a fragile ceasefire between the United States and Iran after a wave of fresh strikes on the United Arab Emirates and Oman, along with reports of attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz, undermined confidence in the truce.
The drone and missile strikes, the first since a ceasefire halted fighting in early April, come after the Trump administration launched a wide-scale naval operation on Monday to “guide” stranded maritime vessels out of the vital waterway.
But fears over a return to war have driven another surge in oil prices, pushing them above $114 per barrel — levels not seen since the ceasefire nearly a month ago. Hundreds of cargo ships from dozens of countries remain stuck in the Gulf. And strikes in Dubai have raised concerns about further disruptions to international air travel at one of the world’s busiest airports.
Iran’s state-run news agency, IRNA, said the new U.S. operation was part of President Trump’s “delirium,” after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned that passage through the strait required prior approval from Tehran.
“We warn that any foreign armed force, especially the invading American army, will be attacked if they attempt to approach and enter the Strait of Hormuz,” said Maj. Gen. Ali Abdollahi, according to a statement reported by the Iranian state-run Mehr News Agency on Monday.
The operation, which Trump over the weekend dubbed Project Freedom, is supported by 15,000 U.S. service members and 100 aircraft, according to U.S. Central Command. Their aim is to deny Tehran control over the strait, a narrow, 21-mile-wide passageway through which a fifth of global energy supplies flows.
On Monday, Trump vowed Iran’s forces will be “blown off the face of the Earth” if they attempt to disrupt Project Freedom.
“We have more weapons and ammunition at a much higher grade than we had before,” Trump was quoted as saying in an interview with Fox News.
“We have the best equipment,” he continued. “We have stuff all over the world. We have these bases all over the world. They’re all stocked up with equipment. We can use all of that stuff, and we will, if we need it.”
Iran blocked traffic through the strait soon after the United States and Israel launched their campaign on the country. Last month, days after a ceasefire between Washington and Tehran came into effect, the United States enforced its own naval blockade on Iranian ports in a bid to pressure Iran to make concessions in stalled negotiations.
On Monday, Central Command said in a statement that two American-flagged merchant ships were able to successfully transit the strait, while Central Command head Adm. Brad Cooper said the U.S. military sank six Iranian boats and intercepted missiles and drones targeting civilian vessels.
“We have defeated each and every one of those threats through the clinical application of defensive munitions,” he said.
“Project Freedom is a defensive operation, and we have deployed anti-ballistic missile destroyers,” he added. “Ships in the Gulf waters belong to 87 countries, and we urge ships to cross the strait.”
IRIB, Iran’s state-run broadcaster, quoted a senior Iranian military official who denied Cooper’s claim of sunken Iranian boats. The IRGC said in a statement on the messaging app Telegram that claims of commercial vessels or tankers traversing the strait were “baseless and completely false.”
Though Cooper did not clarify if the ceasefire between Washington and Tehran was now over, a raft of attacks throughout Monday spiked fears that the war would restart, spurring sharp price increases in already-jittery energy markets.
The UAE said a fire broke out and three Indian nationals were injured in the Fujairah Oil Industry Zone, a key export hub for the country, after what it described as an Iranian drone attack.
It also accused Iran of targeting a tanker linked to the country’s state oil company Abu Dhabi National Oil Company in the Strait of Hormuz, while the country’s defense ministry also reported four cruise missiles launched from Iran, saying that it intercepted three of them while the fourth fell into the sea.
“These attacks constitute a dangerous escalation and an unacceptable transgression,” said a statement from the UAE’s foreign ministry, adding that it “reserves its full and legitimate right to respond to these attacks.”
Elsewhere, two foreign workers were injured in an attack on a residential building in the Omani coastal province of Bukha, according to a statement from an unnamed security source quoted by the state-run Oman News Agency. Authorities were investigating the incident but did not elaborate on the perpetrator.
The U.K.’s Maritime Trade Operations Center reported on Monday that a commercial vessel was on fire off the coast of the UAE, while a South Korean bulk carrier ship said it suffered an explosion and a fire in its engine room and that the cause was being investigated.
Bulos reported from Beirut and Wilner from Washington.
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