A Los Angeles woman came forward Tuesday with new sexual assault accusations against Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-California), deepening the onetime rising political star’s legal woes.
As Swalwell prepared to resign from Congress in disgrace, accuser Lonna Drewes said Swalwell attacked her following a Hollywood meeting in 2018. She also believes he spiked her drink.
“He raped me and he choked me. While he was choking me I lost consciousness. I thought i died,” Drewes said.
“I did not consent to any sexual activity,” she added.
Swalwell, who has denied previous sex assault accusations, did not immediately respond to the latest claim.
Drewes said she met Swalwell when she was running a software firm and hoped to run for Los Angeles City Council.
She said she was in a committed relationship at the time of the alleged attack and never sought a romantic relationship with Swalwell.
Drewes did not report the incident to police but says she wrote of the attack in diaries and told therapists, friends and relatives.
The accuser appeared flanked by her lawyers, including powerhouse sexual harassment attorney Lisa Bloom, in a Los Angeles legal office.
Bloom said she plans to report the alleged crime to the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Office and vowed to cooperate with other criminal probes, including the Manhattan district attorney, which is investigating a separate rape accusation against Swalwell.
“We will not rest till we get justice for Lonna,” Bloom said.
She warned Swalwell to stop minimizing or denying his crimes.
“It’s a slap in the face to the victims,” Bloom said. “Stop it.”
Drewes joins at least four women had already accused Swalwell of sexual misconduct, including one woman who claimed he raped her in a Manhattan hotel room.
The San Francisco Chronicle interviewed a woman who alleged that Swalwell sexually assaulted her in 2019, when he was her boss, and again in 2024. She said she was too intoxicated to consent to sex in both cases and did not go to police at the time because she was afraid she would not be believed.
CNN reported allegations that appeared to come from the same woman. Neither outlet named her, and her lawyer declined to comment.
CNN also spoke to several other women who accused Swalwell of sending them explicit messages and nude photos.
Swalwell dropped out of the California governor’s race and is resigning from Congress, along with Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales who also faced sexual misconduct accusations.
Swalwell, who is married, is originally from Iowa. He was first elected to Congress in 2012 and represents a deep-blue House district in the East Bay near San Francisco.
He launched a presidential bid in April 2019 but dropped out after just a few months.
Swalwell served as a House manager for Trump’s second impeachment trial in early 2021. He also played a role in investigating ties between Trump associates and Russian officials as a member of the House Intelligence Committee.
