Long-serving Democratic U.S. Representative Eric Swalwell, who represented a Northern California district near San Francisco for over a decade, has announced his resignation from Congress and withdrawn from the California gubernatorial race following a cascade of sexual misconduct allegations from multiple women. Two of his accusers, Annika Albrecht and Ally Sammarco, have gone on record with CBS News, the U.S. partner of the BBC, saying they feel vindicated by his sudden exit after years of alleged unpunished behavior.
Albrecht, who had not previously revealed her identity publicly, shared her account with reporters: she first met Swalwell during a college class trip, where he connected with her under the pretense of offering professional political mentorship. Over time, she said, he sent sexually inappropriate photos via Snapchat, the ephemeral messaging platform that automatically deletes content after viewing, and ultimately invited her to meet him in a hotel room. “I keep thinking about how lucky I am that I didn’t go to that hotel,” Albrecht told CBS, adding that learning other women shared similar experiences has been deeply upsetting.
Sammarco, who first went public with her claims last week, met Swalwell in 2018 when she was 24 years old and reached out to him on Twitter to discuss a career in politics. She told reporters he sent her unsolicited nude images through the same Snapchat platform. Both women say Swalwell operated for years with a belief that he was untouchable, free from any accountability for his behavior toward women.
Last week, the dam broke when four women came forward with allegations ranging from persistent sexual harassment to violent rape. The revelations triggered an official ethics inquiry by the U.S. House of Representatives, with bipartisan discussions underway to forcibly expel Swalwell if he did not step down. Sammarco characterized his decision to resign as a forced move to salvage what remains of his public reputation. “He was pushed into a corner, essentially, because they were planning to expel him … so I think he resigned to save face a little,” Sammarco said. “But I also felt very vindicated that he realized it was over for him.”
In his official public statement released Monday, Swalwell acknowledged poor past judgment and issued an apology to his family, staff, and constituents. He admitted to making unspecified mistakes, offering a mea culpa that stopped short of validating the most serious claims against him. “I will fight the serious, false allegation made against me,” he wrote. “However, I must take responsibility and ownership for the mistakes I did make.” The representative, first elected to Congress in 2012, also apologized to his wife for the personal and professional scandal.
The allegations do not end with the two public accusers. Democratic social media influencer Cheyenne Hunt, who first brought the collective allegations to wide public attention with a viral video detailing multiple women’s claims, told CBS that more than 30 different women have reached out to her to report varying forms of misconduct by Swalwell since she posted her first video. Additionally, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has launched a formal investigation into a sexual assault accusation from an unnamed former staff member, first reported by the *San Francisco Chronicle*. That staff member alleges she was assaulted by Swalwell in a New York hotel room in 2019, waking up naked with no clear memory of the previous night after sharing drinks with the congressman.
For Albrecht, the resignation is only a first step toward meaningful accountability. “For me, justice won’t be until he can’t ever harm a woman ever again, and he has faced the consequences for the women that he has harmed,” she said.
Congress is set to return from its scheduled recess this Tuesday, where the House Ethics Committee will proceed with inquiries into two separate congressional misconduct cases: Swalwell’s, and that of Texas Republican Representative Tony Gonzales, who dropped his re-election campaign last month after admitting to an extramarital affair with a member of his congressional staff.