, the former Democratic presidential hopeful who resigned from Congress and quit the California governor’s race this week amid a storm of allegations ranging from sexual misconduct to rape, spent campaign money at a Hollywood hotel where a former model claims he sexually assaulted her.
Swalwell’s 2018 re-election campaign made two payments at the Montrose hotel at 900 Hammond Street on July 18, 2018, according to finance records first publicized on X by a campaign finance expert named Rob Pyers. They were for $353 and $8.
That’s the same address Los Angeles deputies revealed Tuesday after speaking with Swalwell’s latest accuser, Lonna Drewes, who claims to have been victimized in July 2018. Swalwell has denied the allegations coming from her and several other women.
An additional review of Swalwell’s expenditures by Fox News Digital revealed a $43.24 Lyft ride in California on that day. The filing does not show who took it or include more specifics about the ride.
Now the disgraced ex-congressman faces legal probes on both coasts, according to authorities in New York and Los Angeles.
FBI Director challenged the former lawmaker to come in for an interview and encouraged any potential witnesses or victims to call the bureau’s tip line in an X post. And the House Ethics Committee announced Monday its own probe into allegations of sexual misconduct.
While initially the allegations stemming from a 2024 encounter with a former staffer after a New York City gala seemed most likely to lead to charges, new evidence is emerging in California that appears to at least partially corroborate another accuser’s story, according to Donna Rotunno, a Chicago-based trial attorney and Fox News contributor.
“She seems fairly legitimate to me,” she said of Swalwell’s unnamed . “There was outcry. She went to the hospital. She seems to have some evidence to back up her story.”
LISTEN: CRIME & JUSTICE PODCAST ON SWALWELL SEX PROBE
Outcry is when a victim reports a sexual assault incident to someone else, like friends or family, rather than police. Testimony from witnesses on the receiving end of these conversations is allowed in court under certain conditions, Rotunno said. It’s an exception to hearsay rules.
And the New York accuser also got tested for pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, for which she has medical records.
“She at least comes across as somebody who can back it up,” said Rotunno, who is an expert defense lawyer in . “Now it’s for somebody else to determine whether or not they think that its a crime.”
If Manhattan investigators decide to file charges, she said they can expect a vigorous defense from Swalwell’s legal team.
“Would he have known if she’s too intoxicated to consent?” she posited. “Just because you dont remember doesnt mean you dont consent.”
Drunken drivers consented to get behind the wheel before committing those crimes, she said. Drunken Uber riders consent to pay the bill and get home safely.
“Any jury can put themselves in that person’s position,” she said. “Drunk people have sex all the time. Its a very nuanced area of law.”
After the New York accuser went public with her allegations in a San Francisco Chronicle interview published Friday, with allegations of misconduct or worse.
One of them was Drewes, who told Los Angeles deputies Tuesday that Swalwell allegedly sexually assaulted her at a in July 2018, located on the 900 block of Hammond Street â the address of the Montrose hotel where Swalwell’s campaign made two payments on July 18, 2018.
“It corroborates… that she was there,” Rotunno said. “Now he would have to say it was consensual rather
