CNN 5/4/2026
As Swalwell’s public profile grew, more than a dozen women describe how he made them uncomfortable in private
By Allison Gordon, Isabelle Chapman, Casey Tolan, Pamela Brown, CNN
Updated: 6:00 AM EDT, Mon May 4, 2026
A 19-year-old Los Angeles restaurant hostess was stunned to get a LinkedIn message from Eric Swalwell – a congressman she had interacted with brieflyas she escorted him and his party to a table, only telling him her first name.
A young congressional staffer saidSwalwell sent her flirty messages on Snapchat after talking to her inside a Capitol Hill officeand slipping his business card into her back pocket.
Another young woman who connected online with Swalwell about a policy issue said he repeatedly sent her suggestive messages, offered to fly her to DC, and even wrote her a letter of recommendation despite never meeting in person.
“He would Snapchat me. He’d be like, ‘What do you want to do with your future?’” she recalled. “And then he’d be like, ‘What are you wearing right now?’”
More than a dozen women who spoke with CNN described interactions with Swalwell that made them uncomfortable over the last decade, from social media messages to in-person encounters to alleged attempts by the congressman to lure them to his hotel room. Some asked not to be named out of fear of retaliation.
Their accounts – none of which have been previously reported – add new depth to a portrait of troubling behavior by Swalwell, who dropped out of the California governor’s race and resigned from Congress last month after a former staffer told CNN and the San Francisco Chronicle that he raped her. Swalwell, who has denied the allegation, now faces criminal investigations in New York and California.
None of the women who spoke to CNN for this story described sexual assaults.
But their accounts suggest that even as the Democratic rising star drew plaudits for connecting with young voters on social media, where he advocated for women and blasted President Trump for a history of sexual assault allegations, he was using the same platforms to reach out to women and at times to sexually pursue them.
Sara Azari, an attorney for Swalwell, said in a statement that “Swalwell categorically and unequivocally denies each and every allegation of sexual misconduct and assault that has been leveled against him.” She said that Swalwell denied the accounts of some of the women who spoke to CNN, and that his communications with others were “routine and professional.”
She also confirmed that Swalwell had consensual relationships outside of his marriage.
“He had extramarital contact with women. He’s not denying that,” Azari said. “But that’s very different than engaging in nonconsensual sexual misconduct.”
The night after CNN reporters outlined the women’s accounts to Azari to seek comment, without sharing any of their names, Swalwell personally sent Snapchat messages to two of the women. “Why are you screenshotting my snap,” he asked one woman in a message sent around 2 a.m. Eastern, according to a video she provided CNN.
Some women who interacted with Swalwell described him as exhibiting “Jekyll and Hyde” behavior. He portrayed himself as a champion of women’s rights while introducing legislation to support victims of domestic assault, speaking out in support of the MeToo movement, and voting for a resolution banning sexual relationships between lawmakers and their staff.
But at the same time, according to allegations shared in recent weeks with CNN, Swalwell was sexually pursuing at least one woman who worked for him as well as other Capitol Hill staffers, sending women unsolicited nude photos of himself, and, allegedly, sexually assaulting two women.
The women say their experiences with Swalwell came as he accumulated power in Congress, including a seat on the House Intelligence Committee, and allegedly continued well into his front-running push to become California’s next governor. His actions suggest a pattern of behavior that could have exposed him to blackmail or extortion, said Emma Davidson Tribbs, a founding director of the National Women’s Defense League.
“It opens people up to a level of blackmail and influence that you don’t want a public servant to have,” Davidson Tribbs said. “This is a liability for democracy – it makes all of us less safe.”
A Snapchat pioneer
From the earliest days of Swalwell’s political career and even his college years, friends and associates described him as being both driven by ambition and talent – and at times exhibiting concerning behavior around women.
(https://lite.cnn.com/2026/05/04/us/eric-swalwell-uncomfortable-interactions-women-invs
I’d have to post 9 more posts, really long article, so go to the article? Swalwell is mightily fucked. If he did this in Congress can his pay as a retired House member be cut off?)