The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has an active investigation into former Rep. Eric Swalwell over an allegation that he drugged, raped and choked a woman at a West Hollywood hotel room in July 2018. The department says detectives will present the case to county prosecutors for filing consideration after the investigation is completed. The accuser, Lonna Drewes, says she lost consciousness during the alleged assault and believed she was going to die. Swalwell has denied the allegations through his attorney, and the case is one of several separate investigations now surrounding the former congressman.
According to CBS News, the Sheriff's Department opened its investigation after Drewes accused Swalwell of sexually assaulting her at a West Hollywood business in July 2018. The outlet reported that the department's Special Victims Bureau detectives are still in the very early stages of their work. Once that investigation wraps, officials said, detectives will present the case to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office for filing consideration.
Drewes described the alleged attack in stark terms. “While he was choking me, I lost consciousness and I thought I died,” she said, per the same CBS News account. As reported by NBC News, Drewes alleges Swalwell drugged, raped and choked her in a California hotel room in 2018, and Swalwell's attorney, Sara Azari, responded that he “categorically and unequivocally denies each and every allegation of sexual misconduct and assault that has been leveled against him.”
DA's Office Reviewing Evidence
The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office has said prosecutors will review the facts and evidence if a case is presented, but has not said whether or when charges might be filed. Per LAist, the DA's Sex Crime Division is working with law enforcement as the investigation unfolds. Any filing review would come only if the case is later presented to prosecutors.
Swalwell resigned from Congress in April, according to NBC News's reporting, around the same time multiple women came forward with allegations against him. The Hill reported that five women have come forward so far with allegations of sexual assault or misconduct, and that the Department of Justice is investigating Swalwell over allegations of sexual misconduct, as detailed by The Hill.
Manhattan and Federal Investigations Running in Parallel
The Manhattan district attorney's office has also opened its own investigation, tied to an allegation of a sexual assault in New York, according to NBC News's reporting. Reuters reported that a former Swalwell district-office employee accused him of two nonconsensual sexual encounters, one in 2019 and another in 2024, as described by Reuters. The New York Times reported that the Manhattan DA's office urged survivors and anyone with knowledge of the allegations to contact its Special Victims Division.
Federal investigators have also taken action. NPR reported that agents stopped Swalwell at San Francisco International Airport and took his electronic devices, then searched his Washington, D.C. home the next day, a sequence detailed by NPR. Separately, the BBC reported that the House Ethics Committee had opened its own investigation into the sexual misconduct allegations, but that inquiry ended once Swalwell was no longer a member of Congress. The Los Angeles Times also reported on the Ethics Committee's involvement before it lapsed.
What Remains Unresolved
No charges have been filed against Swalwell in any jurisdiction, and the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office has not indicated a timeline for when, or if, that could change. The exact current status of the Manhattan and Department of Justice investigations beyond the reports cited above has not been independently established. Swalwell has denied the allegations through his attorney, and the sheriff's investigation in Los Angeles remains, by the department's own description, in its early stages.
