民主党众议员埃里克·斯瓦尔韦尔宣布，他将暂停加利福尼亚州州长的竞选活动，此前一名前工作人员向国会提出指控旧金山纪事报他对她进行了性侵犯，对此议员予以否认。
这发生在他的政党不仅要求退出竞选，而且要求从国会辞职的压力越来越大的时候。
“我暂停竞选州长。对于我的家人、工作人员、朋友和支持者，我为我过去所犯的判断错误深感抱歉，”Swalwell周日晚上在给X的一篇帖子中写道。
“我将与那些严重的、虚假的指控作斗争——但那是我的斗争，不是竞选的，”他写道。
《旧金山纪事报》发表了一名妇女的报道，该报道没有透露她的身份，她说她在21岁时被聘为Swalwell地区办公室的实习生。
她声称斯威尔开始追求她，并给她发了一张裸照。2019年，她和Swalwell出去喝酒，第二天早上醒来时一丝不挂在斯威尔酒店的床上并且“感受到了阴道性交的效果”，根据这篇文章。
据《旧金山纪事报》报道，这名女子声称，五年后在纽约的一次庆祝活动上，当她不再为他工作时，斯瓦尔威尔在她喝醉的时候追求她，并强迫自己上了她。
美国广播公司新闻没有独立证实这些说法。
在周五晚上晚些时候发布到社交媒体的一段视频中，Swalwell称这些指控是“完全错误的”。它们绝对是假的。”
“它们没有发生。他们从来没有发生过，我将尽我所能与他们斗争，”他说。
Swalwell在视频声明中没有详细说明这些指控。
同样来自加利福尼亚州的民主党众议员Ro Khanna称对Swalwell的指控是“恶心和令人作呕的”
弗吉尼亚州民主党众议员尤金·温德曼(Eugene Vindman)对美国有线电视新闻网(CNN)的“国情咨文”说，“这些指控绝对令人发指，他承认背叛了自己的家庭，这是令人遗憾的。所以埃里克·斯威尔需要辞职。他需要退出竞选。”
温德曼强调，无论政党或地位如何，都需要让领导人负起责任。
“我们已经变得太习惯于让我们的高级领导人，我们的民选官员，呃，远远低于我们对他们的道德行为的期望...温德曼说:“众议员斯威尔必须下台。
包括领袖哈基姆·杰弗里斯(Hakeem Jeffries)在内的三名众议院民主党人呼吁斯威尔停止竞选州长。
杰弗里斯、党鞭凯瑟琳·克拉克(Katherine Clark)和党团主席皮特·阿吉拉尔(Pete Aguilar)在周五发布的一份联合声明中表示，“在对众议员埃里克·斯瓦尔韦尔(Eric Swalwell)提出令人难以置信的令人不安的性侵犯指控后，我们呼吁迅速调查这些事件，并呼吁众议员立即停止竞选加州下一任州长的活动。”。
周日，当被问及Swalwell是否应该辞职时，Jeffries告诉CNN的Jeff Zeleny，“我们目前的声明不言自明。下周初，我们将在华盛顿再次召开会议，届时我们会有更多的话要说。”
他在周五的视频中说，这些指控“发生在我一直是领先候选人的选举前夕”，并引用了他作为一名公务员和检察官的职业生涯，他为性侵犯受害者出庭。
“我没有以任何方式向你暗示我是完美的或者我是一个圣人，”他说。“我过去的确在判断上犯过错误。但这些错误是我和我妻子之间的事，我为让她陷入这种境地向她深表歉意。”
指控的消息传出后不久，民主党人就开始呼吁斯威尔放弃州长竞选。
前议长南希·佩洛西在一份声明中说:“这件极其敏感的事情必须以完全透明和负责任的方式进行适当调查。正如我与国会议员Swalwell讨论的那样，很明显，最好在州长竞选之外进行。”
主持Swalwell州长竞选的加利福尼亚州众议员Jimmy Gomez宣布，他将退出竞选，并将这些指控称为“可以想象的最丑陋和最严重的指控”。
戈麦斯说:“凭良心说，我不能在这场竞选中继续担任任何角色，我将立即辞职。”。“这位国会议员现在应该退出竞选，这样就可以毫无疑问、毫不分心或毫不拖延地承担全部责任。”
亚利桑那州民主党参议员鲁本·加莱戈(Ruben Gallego)最近几天在网上为斯威尔辩护不当行为的谣言，张贴周五，他撤回了他的支持，并表示他“后悔在社交媒体上为自己辩护。”
加州民主党参议员亚当·希夫(Adam Schiff)也表示，他将“立即”撤回支持，并呼吁斯威尔退出。
佛罗里达州共和党众议员安娜·保利娜·卢娜周六表示，如果他不辞职，她计划下周强行投票驱逐斯瓦韦尔。
“埃里克有一个选择。我将在下周进行投票。如果民主党人想保护这种垃圾，我不会推荐，但他们会为此向委员会提出。我厌倦了这个，”卢娜说在福克斯新闻频道。
Swalwell补充说，他愿意采取法律行动来对抗这些指控。
“我会用事实为自己辩护，并在必要时提起法律诉讼。我在未来几天的重点是与我的妻子和孩子在一起，捍卫我们几十年的服务，反对这些谎言，”斯威尔说。
在《纪事报》的报道之后，在州长竞选中与史华威竞争的几位民主党对手，包括圣何塞市长马特·马汉、州警托尼·瑟蒙德和前州审计长贝蒂·易，也呼吁史华威退出竞选。
竞选中的两位领先者，亿万富翁商人汤姆·斯泰尔和前国会女议员凯蒂·波特，表达了对据称受害者的支持，但没有呼吁斯威尔退出竞选。
本周早些时候，Swalwell的竞选团队告诉ABC新闻，Swalwell没有收到任何投诉，也没有要求任何人签署保密协议。
竞选发言人米卡·比斯利(Micah Beasley)周二在向美国广播公司新闻(ABC News)提供的一份声明中说:“这一虚假、令人愤慨的谣言正在选举开始前27天传播，对手们可悲地与MAGA阴谋论者合作，因为他们知道埃里克·斯瓦尔韦尔(Eric Swalwell)在这场竞选中处于领先地位。”。
“13年来，埃里克·斯威尔的国会办公室从来没有人被要求在NDA上签名。从来没有，”比斯利说。“13年来，他的办公室或任何其他办公室的任何工作人员都没有提出过一起道德投诉。永远不会。”
一位熟悉调查的消息人士周六表示，曼哈顿地方检察官的办公室正在调查对斯威尔的指控。
“我们敦促幸存者和任何知道这些指控的人与我们的特别受害者部门联系，电话“212-335-9373，”曼哈顿地方检察官办公室说我们受过专门训练的检察官、调查人员和顾问装备精良，能够以创伤知情、以幸存者为中心的方式帮助您。"
史华威的竞选团队没有回应置评请求。周六，一名代表Swalwell的律师表示“无可奉告”。
众议院道德规则禁止议员与实习生或职员之间的性关系，但众议院不能调查超过三届国会任期之前发生的事件。
California Rep. Eric Swalwell suspends campaign for governor amid sexual assault allegations
Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell announced he is suspending his California governor's race campaign after accusations made by a former staffer to theSan Francisco Chroniclethat he sexually assaulted her, which the congressman has denied.
It comes amid a growing push from his party to not only get out of the race, but to resign from Congress.
"I am suspending my campaign for Governor. To my family, staff, friends, and supporters, I am deeply sorry for mistakes in judgment I’ve made in my past," Swalwell wrote in a post to X Sunday night.
"I will fight the serious, false allegations that have been made — but that’s my fight, not a campaign’s," he wrote.
The San Francisco Chronicle published the account of a woman, who it did not identify, who says she was hired at the age of 21 to work as an intern in Swalwell's district office.
She claims Swalwell began pursuing her and sent her a nude photo. In 2019, she went out for drinks with Swalwell and woke up naked the next morningin Swalwell's hotel bedand "felt the effect of vaginal intercourse," according to the article.
The woman alleges that five years later at a gala in New York, when she was no longer working for him, Swalwell pursued her while she was inebriated and forced himself on her, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
ABC News has not independently verified these claims.
In a video posted to social media late Friday evening, Swalwell called the allegations "flat false. They're absolutely false."
"They did not happen. They have never happened, and I will fight them with everything that I have," he said.
Swalwell did not address the allegations in detail in the video statement.
Fellow Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, also from California, called the allegations against Swalwell “sick and disgusting.”
Rep. Eugene Vindman, D-Va., told CNN's "State of the Union," "The accusations are absolutely heinous, and his admissions betraying his family are deplorable. So Eric Swalwell needs to resign. He needs to drop out of the race.”
Vindman emphasized the need to hold leaders accountable, regardless of party or stature.
“And we have grown far too accustomed to having our senior leaders, our elected officials, uh, fall far below what we expect their behavior to be morally, ethically ... And Representative Swalwell needs to go,” Vindman said.
The top three House Democrats, including Leader Hakeem Jeffries, have called on Swalwell to end his bid for governor.
"Following the incredibly disturbing sexual assault accusations against Congressman Eric Swalwell, we call for a swift investigation into these incidents and for the Congressman to immediately end his campaign to be California's next Governor," Jeffries, Whip Katherine Clark and Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar said in a joint statement released Friday.
Pressed Sunday on whether Swalwell should resign, Jeffries told CNN's Jeff Zeleny, “Our statement for the moment speaks for itself. We’ll reconvene in Washington early next week and we'll have more to say.”
In his Friday video, Swalwell said the allegations "come on the eve of an election where I have been the frontrunner candidate" and cited his career as a public servant and prosecutor who went to court for sexual assault victims, he said.
"I do not suggest to you in any way that I am perfect or that I am a saint," he said. "I have certainly made mistakes in judgment in my past. But those mistakes are between me and my wife and to her I apologize deeply for putting her in this position."
Fellow Democrats started calling for Swalwell to drop his gubernatorial campaign shortly after news of the allegations broke.
In a statement, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi said: "This extremely sensitive matter must be appropriately investigated with full transparency and accountability. As I discussed with Congressman Swalwell, it is clear that is best done outside of a gubernatorial campaign."
Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-Calif., who chaired Swalwell's campaign for governor, announced that he was stepping down from the campaign and referred to the accusations as "the ugliest and most serious accusations imaginable."
"I cannot in good conscience remain in any role with this campaign, and I am stepping down from it effective immediately," Gomez said. "The congressman should leave the race now so there can be full accountability without doubt, distraction, or delay."
Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona, who had in recent days defended Swalwell from online rumors of misconduct,postedFriday that he was withdrawing his endorsement and said that he "regret[s] having come to his defense on social media."
Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., also said he is pulling his endorsement "immediately" and called on Swalwell to withdraw.
Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida said Saturday that she plans to force a vote next week to expel Swalwell if he does not resign.
"Eric has an option.I am going to bring this vote next week. If Democrats want to protect this type of garbage, I wouldn’t recommend it, but they are going to put on the board for that.I am tired of this," Lunasaidon Fox News.
Swalwell added that he is willing to pursue legal action to combat the accusations.
"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," Swalwell said.
In the wake of the Chronicle's reporting, several of Swalwell's Democratic opponents in the governor's race, including San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, State Superintendent Tony Thurmond, and former State Controller Betty Yee have also called on Swalwell to drop out of the race.
The two frontrunners in the race, billionaire businessman Tom Steyer and former Congresswoman Katie Porter, expressed support for the alleged victim but stopped short of calling on Swalwell to drop out of the race.
Earlier this week, Swalwell's campaign told ABC News that Swalwell has not received any complaints and has not asked anyone to sign non-disclosure agreements.
"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," campaign spokesperson Micah Beasley said in a statement provided to ABC News on Tuesday.
"In 13 years, no one in Eric Swalwell's Congressional office has ever been asked to sign an NDA. Ever," Beasley said. "In 13 years, not a single ethics complaint by any staff in his office or any other office has ever been lodged. Ever."
The Manhattan District Attorney's Office is investigating allegations against Swalwell, a source familiar with the investigation said Saturday.
"We urge survivors and anyone with knowledge of these allegations to contact our Special Victims Division at212-335-9373," the Manhattan DA’s office said. "Our specially trained prosecutors, investigators, and counselors are well-equipped to help you in a trauma-informed, survivor-centered manner."
Swalwell's campaign has not responded to a request for comment. An attorney representing Swalwell said "no comment" on Saturday.
House ethics rules prohibit sexual relationships between members and interns or staffers but the House cannot investigate an incident occurring more than three terms of Congress ago.
