A woman accused former congressman Eric Swalwell (D-California) of raping her in a West Hollywood hotel in 2018, and said she will make a formal report to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office.
Lonna Drewes said at a news conference on Tuesday that she met Swalwell socially in 2018 when she was working as a model in Beverly Hills, running a fashion software company and considering a run for city council.
Drewes’s attorney, Lisa Bloom, said her client would present evidence to the authorities but not the news media. Bloom provided one photo that shows Drewes and Swalwell at an opening of a restaurant called Avra in 2018. The Washington Post was not able to confirm her account.
An attorney for Swalwell, Sara Azari, 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 called the accusations “false, fabricated, and deeply offensive — a calculated and transparent political hit job designed to destroy the reputation of a man who has spent twenty years in public service.”
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement later Tuesday that it was investigating the claim, which is in “its preliminary stages” as “as part of a comprehensive investigative process.”
Drewes had a boyfriend at the time and was aware that Swalwell was married and believed they were just friends, she said at the news conference at Bloom’s office in Beverly Hills.
The third time Drewes and Swalwell saw each other, she became incapacitated after having only one glass of wine, leading her to believe she was drugged, she said.
“We were supposed to go to a political event and he said he needed to get paperwork from his hotel room,” Drewes said. “When I arrived at his hotel room I was already incapacitated and I couldn’t move my arms or my body. He raped me.”
Drewes said that Swalwell choked her and she lost consciousness. She said she did not file a police report at the time because she feared angering Swalwell’s political and law enforcement connections. She disclosed the allegations at the time to people close to her, recorded the events in a handwritten calendar, and later told a therapist about it in sessions at a sexual assault center in Connecticut, she added. The Post has not been able to review that evidence, which Drewes’s attorney said would not be supplied to the news media.
Swalwell, who has served in the House since 2013, resigned from Congress on Tuesday, shortly after he dropped out of the California governor’s race. He has denied an allegation from a former staffer that he sexually assaulted her in a New York City hotel room after they went out for drinks in 2024, as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle. CNN also reported that three other women accused Swalwell of inappropriate conduct, including sending explicit photos or messages. The Manhattan district attorney’s office confirmed that it is investigating a sexual assault accusation of a former staff member. The Post has not independently verified the assault and inappropriate conduct claims.
Swalwell acknowledged making “mistakes in judgment” in a statement this week.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on Tuesday set a special election for Aug. 18 to fill Swalwell’s U.S. House seat.
Maegan Vazquez contributed to this report.
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