Federal agents seized electronic devices from former Rep. Eric Swalwell at the San Francisco airport and then executed a search warrant on his Washington home the very next day, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke to the Associated Press. This is not a rumor or an opposition hit job. This is the FBI showing up with warrants. The investigation involves allegations that Swalwell sexually assaulted multiple women, including a former staffer who told CNN and the San Francisco Chronicle that he raped her at a New York City hotel in 2024.
What Actually Happened This Week
According to the AP, agents seized Swalwell's devices on Saturday at SFO, then turned around and searched his D.C. home on Sunday with a search warrant in hand. The Daily Mail broke the device seizure story Thursday, and the AP confirmed it through a source who was not authorized to publicly discuss an ongoing investigation.
Swalwell's attorney was contacted for comment but had not responded as of the time of reporting. Swalwell himself has denied all allegations of sexual assault and misconduct, which is more or less what every person who has ever been investigated for sexual assault and misconduct says.
The attorney for Lonna Drewes, one of the accusers, put out a statement saying his team was cooperating with all law enforcement agencies investigating Swalwell, and that they were "encouraged to learn about the escalation of the FBI's investigation." Escalation. That is a word worth sitting with.
The Allegations That Ended His Career
Swalwell resigned from Congress in April after the San Francisco Chronicle and CNN reported that a former staffer alleged he sexually assaulted her twice, including while she was working for him. CNN followed that up by reporting that three additional women alleged various forms of sexual misconduct, including Swalwell sending them unsolicited explicit messages or nude photos.
Drewes, a California woman, held a news conference after Swalwell's resignation and said he raped her in 2018 at a hotel in Southern California. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office confirmed in April that it was investigating a separate allegation: that Swalwell raped a former staffer at a New York City hotel in 2024 while he was in town for a charity gala. Bragg's office issued a public call for any survivors or witnesses to contact their Special Victims Division.
That is at minimum two criminal investigations, in two different jurisdictions, involving two different alleged rapes, plus a federal device seizure and home search. The breadth of this is not small.
From Trump's Loudest Democratic Critic to This
For years, Eric Swalwell was one of the most visible Democratic attack dogs in Washington. He served on the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees during Trump's first term, made a brief and unsuccessful run for president in 2019, and was one of the Democratic impeachment managers after January 6th. He was, by any measure, a prominent national figure and a regular fixture on cable news.
He had been considered a leading candidate in California's gubernatorial race before the allegations surfaced and he dropped out. California lawmaker Aisha Wahab won a special election Thursday to fill the rest of his House term.
Swalwell was also removed from the Intelligence Committee in 2023 by then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy over his past contact with Christine Fang, a suspected Chinese spy who had reportedly participated in fundraising for his campaigns. A House Ethics Committee investigation into that matter opened in 2021 and closed two years later without any action. He was not accused of wrongdoing on that front. But it is a remarkable second chapter to a career that has now produced multiple criminal investigations and a federal raid.
Where Things Stand Legally
The FBI does not execute search warrants as a casual formality. Getting a federal judge to sign off on raiding a former member of Congress's home requires establishing probable cause that a crime was committed and that evidence of it exists at that location. That bar is not nothing.
Manhattan DA Bragg's investigation is focused on the 2024 New York allegation. The FBI's involvement suggests federal investigators are looking at something that crosses state lines or involves federal statutes, though the specific charges being considered have not been publicly confirmed. The person who spoke to the AP was not authorized to discuss the investigation and gave limited detail.
Swalwell's denial remains on the record. What is also on the record is that federal agents took his phones and computers and went through his house on back-to-back days. The next moves belong to prosecutors.
The Dingo Take
You are supposed to believe this is complicated because Eric Swalwell spent years being one of the loudest Democratic voices against Donald Trump, because he gave floor speeches and sat on important committees and ran for president for a few months. None of that is relevant to whether he raped women. It doesn't get complicated just because the person accused of doing something monstrous also happened to vote the right way on things you cared about.
The left spent years, rightly, demanding accountability for powerful men who used their positions to assault and harass women. That demand does not come with a partisan exemption. It never did. If it does for you now, the problem is yours to reckon with, not ours to soften.
Two women have gone on the record alleging rape. Three others alleged other forms of misconduct. The Manhattan DA opened a criminal investigation. Now the FBI has raided his house and seized his devices. This is not a smear campaign. This is law enforcement, with warrants, doing what law enforcement does when it takes allegations seriously. Whatever comes next legally, the story of Eric Swalwell is already a complete and damning thing.
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