Another woman accused Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., of rape Tuesday, just hours before the embattled lawmaker is expected to resign from the House.<\/p>\n
“He raped me. And he choked me. And while he was choking me, I lost consciousness. And I thought I died,” Lonna Drewes said Tuesday, while describing an incident that she alleged took place in Swalwell’s hotel room in 2018.<\/p>\n
Drewes said she was working as a model and software engineer in Beverly Hills when she met Swalwell, who offered business and political connections. When meeting him for the third time under the guise of going to a political event, Drewes alleged that Swalwell drugged her drink and proceeded to rape her in his hotel room.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The woman said she had just one glass of wine and could not consent.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Drewes said that she recorded the incident in a handwritten calendar and disclosed the alleged rape to multiple people. She said she waited to come forward, citing her fear of retribution.<\/p>\n
“My delay in taking action against Eric was driven by fear, not doubt. Fear of his political power, his background as an attorney, and his family,” Drewes said.<\/p>\n
Drewes came forward after four women alleged Swalwell committed sexual misconduct and rape, including at least one incident involving a former staffer, as reported by CNN and the San Francisco Chronicle.<\/p>\n
The announcement came during a news conference in Beverly Hills, Calif., organized by the woman\u2019s attorneys, Lisa Bloom and Arick Fudali.<\/p>\n
Drewes’ attorneys said they would be submitting a report to law enforcement.<\/p>\n
Bloom offered sharp criticism for Swalwell, who has denied any wrongdoing, but acknowledged a “lack in judgement.” He has also vowed to fight “false” allegations.<\/p>\n
“Your recent statement that you are just not perfect, that you are not a saint is just blather and spin. Stop it,” Bloom said to Swalwell. “Your statement that this is all just a matter between you and your wife is laughable, if not for the fact that it is a slap in the face to the victims.”<\/p>\n
“Own your behavior,” Bloom added.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bloom said that she has had three other women with allegations against Swalwell privately reach out to her since the news conference was announced.<\/p>\n
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said he expected Swalwell to offer his resignation letter on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
When asked whether he agreed with the decision of Swalwell and scandal-plagued Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, to resign, Jeffries replied, “Yes.”<\/p>\n
Fox News Digital has reached out to Swalwell’s office for comment.<\/p>\n
This is a developing story and will be updated.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Another woman accused Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., of rape Tuesday, just hours before the embattled lawmaker is expected to resign from the House. “He raped me. And he choked me. And while he was choking me, I lost consciousness. And I thought I died,” Lonna Drewes said Tuesday, while describing an incident that she alleged … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71683\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}