A fifth woman came forward Tuesday to accuse former U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell of sexual misconduct, following a turbulent weekend in which he resigned from Congress and suspended his campaign for governor of California.

Speaking publicly in Beverly Hills alongside attorneys Lisa Bloom and Arick Fudali, Lonna Drewes made serious allegations about an encounter she said occurred in 2018.

“He r*ped me and he choked me. While he was choking me, I lost consciousness. I thought I died. I believe he drugged my drink…I only had one glass of wine. I did not consent to any s*xual activity. He was married at the time and his wife was pregnant. He said he needed to get paperwork from his hotel room. When I arrived to his hotel room I was already incapacitated, I couldn’t move my arms or my body,” the woman said.

“In 2018, while I was living and working as a model in Beverly Hills, and I also owned a fashion software company, I had contact with Eric Swalwell on three separate occasions.”

“I knew he was married at the time and that his wife was pregnant. He was my friend. On the third occasion, I believe he drugged my drink,” Lonna Drewes said.

Swalwell has denied the allegations, calling claims reported by the San Francisco Chronicle “false.”

Following earlier reports that prompted him to end his gubernatorial bid, Swalwell announced Monday that he would resign from Congress.

“I am deeply sorry to my family, staff, and constituents for mistakes in judgment I’ve made in my past,” Swalwell said in a statement. “I will fight the serious, false allegations made against me. However, I must take responsibility and ownership for the mistakes I did make.”

“I am aware of efforts to bring an immediate expulsion vote against me and other members. Expelling anyone in Congress without due process, within days of an allegation being made, is wrong,” he continued. “But it’s also wrong for my constituents to have me distracted from my duties. Therefore, I plan to resign my seat in Congress.

According to reporting from CNN and the *San Francisco Chronicle*, at least four other women have accused Swalwell of sexual misconduct, including a former assistant who alleged he raped her while she was unable to give consent.

A bipartisan effort to expel Swalwell had been under consideration and may now be halted by his resignation.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) had planned to introduce a resolution to remove him from office and urged House leadership to bring it to a vote. She also called for support across party lines, alongside a separate effort led by Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-NM) targeting Rep. Tony Gonzales.

Some progressive Democrats, including Rep. Pramila Jayapal, expressed support for accountability measures, while others stopped short of backing formal expulsion and instead urged Swalwell to resign.

Several allies and longtime supporters withdrew backing for his gubernatorial campaign amid the controversy, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Swalwell had already exited the 2026 race to succeed California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

First elected to Congress in 2013, Swalwell previously worked as a prosecutor in Alameda County and served on the Dublin, California, city council.

During his time in Congress, he was involved in efforts to impeach President Donald Trump in 2019 and later played a role in investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

The *San Francisco Chronicle* reported detailed allegations, including claims that Swalwell pursued inappropriate relationships and interactions with women. The accusations first gained wider attention earlier this month after political commentator Cheyenne Hunt shared accounts from women alleging misconduct.

U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) announced Monday that he will resign from Congress in the coming days. The decision came just hours after U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) said he would also step down.

“There is a season for everything and God has a plan for us all. When Congress returns tomorrow, I will file my retirement from office,” Gonzales, who represents Texas’ 23rd Congressional District, wrote in a post on X. “It has been my privilege to serve the great people of Texas,” he added.

Gonzales’ announcement follows a series of personal and political challenges. About a month earlier, he suspended his re-election campaign after acknowledging an affair with a staff member who later died by suicide. Party leaders and several colleagues had urged him to withdraw after he advanced to a runoff against Second Amendment activist and YouTuber Brandon Herrera.

Gonzales addressed the situation publicly during a March 4 appearance on “The Joe Pags Show.”

“I made a mistake, and I had a lapse in judgment, and there was a lack of faith, and I take full responsibility for those actions,” he said after weeks of speculation. “Since then, I’ve reconciled with my wife, Angel. I’ve asked God to forgive me, which he has, and my faith is as strong as ever.”

The former staffer, Regina Santos-Aviles, worked as a regional director in Gonzales’ district office and died in September 2025. Reports indicated she had previously confided in a colleague about the relationship, including sharing a text message referencing an “affair with our boss.”

Gonzales later confirmed the relationship when announcing the suspension of his campaign.

His resignation comes shortly after Swalwell’s own announcement. Swalwell has faced allegations of sexual misconduct from multiple women, and there had been growing discussion in the House about potential expulsion proceedings if members involved did not step down voluntarily.

Attention is now turning to Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL), who was recently convicted in a fraud case involving federal disaster relief funds. Several Republicans have indicated that efforts to expel the Florida lawmaker are underway.

The Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that President Donald Trump may, for now, remove three appointees of former President Joe Biden from the Consumer Product Safety Commission without cause.

The decision marks a further weakening of a decades-old precedent designed to protect the independence of certain regulatory agencies while balancing executive authority.

“The Consumer Product Safety Commission exercises executive power in a similar manner as the National Labor Relations Board, and the case does not otherwise differ from Wilcox in any pertinent respect,” the court said in its order.

In a separate concurrence, Justice Brett Kavanaugh indicated he would have preferred to take up the case for full review later this year.

All three liberal justices on the court dissented.

Justice Elena Kagan, writing for herself and Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson, criticized the majority for acting through the emergency docket to block congressional limits on presidential removal power. She argued that the ruling expands executive authority at the expense of Congress.

“The majority has acted on the emergency docket—with ‘little time, scant briefing, and no argument’ — to override Congress’s decisions about how to structure administrative agencies so that they can perform their prescribed duties,” she wrote. “By means of such actions, this Court may facilitate the permanent transfer of authority, piece by piece by piece, from one branch of Government to another.”

Although temporary, the Court’s move directly challenges Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, a landmark 1935 decision that limited the president’s ability to remove officials from independent agencies.

In that unanimous ruling, the Court determined that President Franklin D. Roosevelt could not remove a commissioner from the Federal Trade Commission solely for opposing his policies. The decision established that Congress can protect officials at independent agencies from removal except in cases of misconduct or other valid cause.

In 2021, President Biden appointed three commissioners to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which is responsible for setting product safety standards, managing recalls, researching hazards, and in some cases banning dangerous products.

However, early in his new term, President Trump removed those commissioners before their terms had expired.

The commissioners filed a lawsuit, arguing that the president lacked authority to terminate their positions without cause. They maintained that Congress structured the agency as an independent body and that the law permits removal only for “neglect of duty of malfeasance in office.”

The Trump administration argued that the president, as chief executive, has the authority to remove commissioners “at will,” contending that they exercise “substantial or considerable executive power.”

A federal judge in Maryland temporarily blocked the removals and ordered the commissioners reinstated while the case proceeds in lower courts.

After the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit declined to intervene, the administration appealed to the Supreme Court, citing a prior decision allowing the removal of officials from the National Labor Relations Board and the Merit Systems Protection Board.

The Court again sided with the administration.

In a similar ruling earlier this year, the justices allowed Trump to remove two Democratic-appointed agency officials, again over the dissent of the court’s three liberal members.

However, the Court declined the administration’s request to fast-track full consideration of the case this term, postponing a final decision on whether the president has permanent authority to dismiss such officials.