ALSO SEE: Four Women Describe Sexual Misconduct by Rep. Eric Swalwell, Including a Former Staffer Who Says He Raped Her

A woman who worked for nearly two years for Rep. Eric Swalwell, a leading candidate for California governor, said she had sexual encounters with him while he was her boss and alleged he twice sexually assaulted her when she was too intoxicated to consent.

Swalwell did not respond to any of the former staffer’s specific allegations, made in a series of interviews with the Chronicle, and provided a statement Friday:

“These allegations are false and come on the eve of an election against the frontrunner for governor,” he wrote. “For nearly 20 years, I have served the public — as a prosecutor and a congressman and have always protected women. I will defend myself with the facts and where necessary bring legal action. My focus in the coming days is to be with my wife and children and defend our decades of service against these lies.”

Late Thursday, an attorney for Swalwell sent a cease-and-desist letter to the woman, saying she had “made false statements accusing Mr. Swalwell of sexual assault and nonconsensual sexual encounter,” and threatening to sue her if she did not retract her allegations.

On Friday afternoon, shortly after the Chronicle published an initial version of this story, Swalwell allies including both chairs of his campaign — Democratic Reps. Jimmy Gomez of Los Angeles and Adam Gray of Turlock (Stanislaus County) — began withdrawing their endorsements and calling on him to drop out of the gubernatorial race. Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, one of Swalwell’s most powerful allies, also called on him to leave the race.

The woman said Swalwell began pursuing her within weeks after she was hired at age 21 to work in the Democrat’s district office in Castro Valley in 2019. Swalwell messaged her on Snapchat, she said, sending images of his genitals and seeking nude pictures of her in return.

She said Swalwell, who is married and 17 years her senior at age 45, tried to kiss her in her car when she drove him home from a donor meeting one night. Driving him to another event weeks later, she said Swalwell pulled out his penis in the car and asked her to perform oral sex on him. She said she did so in a parking lot.

In September 2019, the woman said, Swalwell invited her out for drinks and she became so severely intoxicated that she does not remember the rest of the night. She said she woke up naked in Swalwell’s hotel bed and could feel the effect of vaginal intercourse. She said Swalwell distanced himself from her afterward and the relationship faded.

Five years later, the woman said, she attended an April 2024 charity gala where Swalwell was honored. The woman, who no longer worked for Swalwell, said they met for drinks afterward, during which she became so inebriated that she remembers only snippets of the night, including pushing Swalwell away and telling him, “No,” while he allegedly forced himself on her.

The woman texted a friend three days later that she was “sexually assaulted” by Swalwell. She wrote in a series of messages reviewed by the Chronicle that 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,” she wrote, referring to the 2019 incident.

The Chronicle spoke with the friend and the woman’s then-boyfriend, whom she said she told about the alleged 2024 assault when she got home the next day. Both described her as still disoriented that morning, and her then-boyfriend said he encouraged her to report Swalwell to the police.

The woman said she did not go to the authorities because she was afraid they would not believe her. Medical records show she obtained pregnancy and STD tests a week after the incident.

The Chronicle shared a detailed summary of the woman’s account with Swalwell’s campaign Thursday.

Swalwell’s attorney, Elias Dabaie, wrote in the cease-and-desist letter that the woman had exhibited “the conduct of a loyal and supportive colleague, not a victim” and that “the credibility of your accusations is fatally undermined by your voluntary and cooperative relationship with Mr. Swalwell over the course of many years following the period in question.”

The letter mentioned the woman’s use of Swalwell as a professional reference and her recent outreach to the Swalwell campaign about social media posts alleging his misconduct.

An attorney representing the woman, Gerald Singleton, responded to Dabaie on Friday, writing that her “statements are 100% factually accurate, and she will not be withdrawing them.”

In recent weeks, political influencers and other social media accounts have alleged sexual misconduct by Swalwell. The online posts have not included any specific evidence, but gained enough attention that Swalwell issued a public denial, saying he had never behaved inappropriately toward or slept with female staffers during his seven terms in Congress.

“No, no, it’s false,” Swalwell told reporters after a town hall in Sacramento on Tuesday evening, characterizing the posts on social media as political attacks less than a month before people begin voting in the primary election, in which the top two candidates will advance to November’s general election.

On Thursday, Swalwell canceled a previously scheduled event in Palm Desert (Riverside County). Local news outlet KESQ reported that the event was canceled due to illness.

The Chronicle is not identifying the woman in this story in compliance with its policy against naming alleged victims of sexual assault. Reporters looking into the broader allegations against Swalwell reached her while contacting dozens of his former staffers.

The woman said she largely kept quiet about Swalwell’s behavior for years out of fear she would suffer personal and professional consequences.

“He was the foundation of my career. I had nothing to fall back on or anyone to vouch for my skills outside of my colleagues in that office and Eric himself,” she told the Chronicle. “I knew if I came forward, it would define me and undermine my credibility.”

The woman began speaking with a Chronicle reporter last month as she considered whether to make her allegations public. When rumors about Swalwell’s conduct began circulating online, the woman said she was confused because she had told only a small circle of family and close friends about what had happened to her. She said she was “petrified” that Swalwell had told people about their encounters or that her name had appeared in an opposition research file compiled by a rival campaign.

She said she called the Swalwell campaign in late March to find out whether her name had surfaced among rumored victims. A staffer on the campaign, she said, asked her to vouch for Swalwell.

She said the staffer asked her whether Swalwell had ever been inappropriate with her, and then, when she hesitated to answer, said, “Actually, I don’t want to know.” When the campaign staffer told her that Swalwell was not afraid of the rumors because he had not done anything inappropriate, the woman said she felt determined to speak out.

“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,” she said. “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.”

Recent polling shows Swalwell neck-and-neck with former Rep. Katie Porter and billionaire Tom Steyer, the other top Democrats in the race, and the two leading Republicans, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and former Fox News host Steve Hilton. Before the Chronicle published the woman’s allegations, Swalwell had won endorsements from two dozen other members of Congress, including Sens. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz. Fourteen members of the state Legislature publicly supported him. A host of powerful labor unions, including SEIU California and the California Teachers Association, had also backed his candidacy.

Shortly after the Chronicle published the allegations, many of those supporters began to revoke their endorsements, including Schiff, Gallego and more than half a dozen congressional colleagues, as well the California Teachers Association. SEIU California said it would suspend campaign activities for Swalwell.

Several hours after the Chronicle published the woman’s account, CNN published a story that included allegations from three more women of inappropriate behavior by Swalwell. One woman told CNN that he kissed her and touched her leg at a bar and that she later found herself in his hotel room without knowing how she got there. Two others said he sent them unsolicited photos of his penis. The woman who spoke with the Chronicle also spoke with CNN. Swalwell also denied the allegations in CNN’s story.

Swalwell’s popularity comes in part from his prominent role in the impeachment investigations against President Donald Trump during his first term. He is a frequent harsh critic of Trump on broadcast news programs and has framed much of his gubernatorial campaign around the idea that he will stand up to Trump and protect California’s policies against federal interference.

In his 2021 book “Endgame: Inside the Impeachments of Donald J. Trump,” Swalwell described complaining to his wife about having to meet with Trump because of his alleged mistreatment of women. “He’s a pig,” he recounted telling her. “He bragged about grabbing women by the pussy. He’s awful.”

The former staffer began working for Swalwell during his short-lived presidential campaign in 2019, after her college graduation. She then was hired into his district office in Castro Valley that July after he dropped out of the race.

She said Swalwell, who was 38 at the time, began messaging her on Snapchat, a popular app among teens and college students that allows users to send disappearing photos and videos that can’t be saved or archived.

The messages were initially welcome, the woman said. Alone in a new community across the country from where she grew up, she said she felt encouraged by his friendly outreach and flattered that he was paying attention to her.

When Swalwell flirted with her and started asking for pictures — first of her face, then of her naked body and genitalia — the woman said she went along with it, both intrigued by him and worried about upsetting her new boss.

His advances progressed rapidly from there, the woman said. Within a few weeks, as she drove Swalwell back to his hotel one night from a donor meeting at the Battery, a private club in San Francisco, he tried to kiss her, she said. When she resisted, noting that he was married, the woman said, he suggested that their Snapchat messages had been leading toward this.

When they messaged on Snapchat, Swalwell sometimes sent photos of himself shirtless or of his penis, the woman said. She said he once sent her a video of himself sitting on an airplane, rubbing his penis through his pants.

A few weeks later, the woman was driving Swalwell to an event in his district when, she said, he took out his penis and asked her, “Would you help me out?” She said she began to perform oral sex on him in a parking lot, but stopped because it was the middle of the day and she was afraid someone would see them.

On Sept. 27, 2019, the woman said Swalwell invited her and a group of friends to join him and an adviser at Hap’s, a steakhouse in downtown Pleasanton. The woman had been drinking before the gathering, she said, and Swalwell bought her more alcohol when she arrived.

She said she became so inebriated that she does not remember how she left the restaurant — only that she woke up the next morning in Swalwell’s hotel bed, naked. She also has a brief recollection of him sucking her toes, which she said disgusted her.

The woman said she could feel the effect of vaginal intercourse, but they did not discuss it and Swalwell sent her off to work, which included staffing an event that morning in which he went hiking with constituents. Swalwell was distant afterward, the woman said, and treated her more professionally, which made her feel dirty.

Swalwell posted photos from the hike on his official Facebook page later that day. “Great weather, beautiful scenery, and a great discussion,” he wrote.

There appeared to be two Swalwells, the woman said — the one on Snapchat and the one in real life. She said she started to feel the same about herself as she tried to compartmentalize what had happened between them.

“That made me question who I was, because the person that I was wouldn’t harbor something so awful,” she said.

She said Swalwell continued to pull away after the alleged assault, even as she reached out seeking his attention. She had believed he had romantic feelings for her, but she said his Snapchat messages became less frequent.

The woman continued to work for Swalwell, moving to a new job in his office in Washington, D.C. She said she felt conflicted, wanting to stay close to Swalwell professionally while also scared of being exposed and of people believing she had advanced in her career only by having an inappropriate relationship with him.

She left Swalwell’s office in 2021 but continued to work in politics. She said Swalwell occasionally stayed in touch with her, including reaching out as she considered other job opportunities.

On April 25, 2024, the former staffer attended an awards ceremony in New York hosted by a nonprofit organization. Swalwell was being honored alongside actors and athletes, according to a document listing the attendees reviewed by the Chronicle that includes both the woman’s name and Swalwell’s.

Swalwell has dabbled in film production, and his campaign has received donations from Hollywood bigwigs including Sean Penn, Ed Helms and Robert De Niro. At the event, he presented an award to a veteran studio executive, who called Swalwell the “hardest-working man in Congress,” describing him as a longtime friend and occasional pickleball opponent, according to footage of the event.

The former staffer said she met up with Swalwell before the event to discuss her career. Because it went well, she said she decided to meet him again after the event for a drink, which she had hoped would be a chance to prove to him that she should be taken seriously.

“Even though he had hurt me in the past, I felt like he was someone I could trust,” she said. “Because we shared this secret together, it pulled me closer to him.”

The woman said they met up again around 11:30 p.m. or midnight, but as soon as they got into a car together to ride to the bar, Swalwell grabbed her leg. She said she told him, “No funny business.”

The woman said she drank late into the night with Swalwell. She said that her last clear memory is of going to the bathroom at the bar, and that she has only flashes of what followed: Swalwell’s hotel room, him on top of her, her pushing him off, her telling him no.

“I woke up once during it and even told him to stop at one point,” the woman wrote to a friend three days later in a text message, which the Chronicle reviewed. “i just feely (sic) icky and gross and like I want to submerge myself in hot lava.”

The next morning, the woman said she woke up alone in Swalwell’s room at the Times Square Edition hotel, unsure where she was, disoriented and still feeling drunk. She said she had vaginal bleeding and bruises; there was no doubt in her mind, she said, that Swalwell had forcibly had sex with her.

Her friend told the Chronicle he had asked the woman to check in the night before when she made it back to her hotel room, but never heard from her. He said he FaceTimed with her as she waited for her train home, and that “she was very, very out of it” and seemed “very confused, very manic. Her voice was shaky. I could tell something was wrong but she couldn’t tell me.”

The woman said Swalwell messaged her on Snapchat that morning and told her not to tell anyone what had happened.

“He even sent me a message: you said you didn’t remember anything last time i hope you do now,” she texted her friend three days later. “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,” she wrote to her friend. “He was gaslighting me into thinking it was consensual.”

The woman said she asked Swalwell if it was possible he had ejaculated inside of her. He told her not to worry, she recalled, because he was “snipped,” referring to a vasectomy. She said she was furious, because that would not have protected her against potential sexually transmitted diseases.

When she got home, the woman said she told her then-boyfriend about what had happened and he suggested she report Swalwell to the police. But the woman said she resisted the idea because she had already showered and feared that an examination would turn up no evidence, painting her as a liar.

“I never thought anyone would believe me, because of how powerful he was,” she said. “I knew any police investigation would be made public. And I was still protecting myself and, in some ways, him.”

The Chronicle spoke to her then-boyfriend, who said that when she told him about the experience, he responded that it sounded like she was describing an assault. “At the end of that day,” he said, “she did not want to report that, so I respected that decision.”

The woman said she got pregnancy and STD tests and told the physician’s assistant who administered them what had happened. The Chronicle reviewed the office summary of her visit, which took place a week after the alleged assault and included a throat swab for chlamydia and gonorrhea, as well as HIV and syphilis screenings.

“You are a survivor, always so proud and admire your strength. Shine on!” the provider wrote in her treatment plan.

After denying the woman’s claims, the Swalwell campaign connected a reporter to Rohit Karn Batra, a friend of Swalwell’s who was with Swalwell on the evening of the gala.

Batra confirmed to the Chronicle that he attended the gala but said he did not speak much with Swalwell during the event, as the representative was busy speaking with others and presenting the award. Batra said he recalls running into Swalwell in the hallway when the gala concluded sometime around sunset, which would have been shortly before 8 p.m. that night, and that the congressman invited him to get drinks afterward.

Batra said that he agreed, and that they drove to a bar. He said he spent little time at the gathering talking to Swalwell, who was occupied talking with others. Batra said he left after about an hour and a half because he was tired and needed to get back to New Jersey, where he was staying. That would have been before 11:30 p.m., when the woman said she met up with Swalwell.

In the two years since, the former staffer, who still works in Congress, said she had tried to stay on friendly terms with Swalwell to protect her career, though she said she had privately discussed her concerns about his behavior with some colleagues, without getting into details about her experience.

She said she texted with Swalwell perhaps a dozen times in the past two years, including about a job offer to work on his governor campaign earlier this year, which she said she turned down.