{"id":527799,"date":"2026-04-13T02:48:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T02:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/527799\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T02:48:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T02:48:11","slug":"democrats-join-calls-to-expel-eric-swalwell-from-congress-over-misconduct-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/527799\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrats join calls to expel Eric Swalwell from Congress over misconduct claims"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last month, Gonzales dropped his re-election bid<\/a> after admitting to having an affair with a staff member. A House ethics panel is investigating his conduct.<\/p>\n

US media reported four women have accused Swalwell of misconduct ranging from harassment to sexual assault, including an alleged incident in New York that has prompted an investigation<\/a> by Manhattan district attorney’s office. The BBC has not independently verified the unnamed accuser’s account or identity.<\/p>\n

Swalwell – who was elected in 2012 to a district near San Francisco – vowed in a statement on Friday to defend himself. <\/p>\n

“For nearly 20 years, I have served the public – as a prosecutor and a congressman, and have always protected women,” the married father-of-three added. “I will defend myself with the facts and where necessary bring legal action.”<\/p>\n

Within hours of the accusations surfacing, Swalwell’s California gubernatorial campaign had lost the backing of prominent supporters, including House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries.<\/p>\n

Now some of his colleagues are going further in calling for him to step down from Congress altogether.<\/p>\n

Jared Huffman, a California Democrat, said if Swalwell and Gonzales did not resign from Congress, he would support their expulsion.<\/p>\n

Democrat Pramila Jayapal of Washington said she would also vote to expel.<\/p>\n

She said it was “important for staffers across the Capitol to see that their bosses don’t get to do this to them”.<\/p>\n

Without explicitly committing to back an expulsion motion, Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, condemned Swalwell’s alleged conduct.<\/p>\n

“There needs to be consequences to that,” Khanna said. “And I have said not only does he need to step aside, there needs to a House ethics investigation and a law enforcement investigation.” Khanna said Gonzales also needed to go.<\/p>\n

The calls for Swalwell and Gonzales to stand down were bipartisan.<\/p>\n

Mike Lawler, a Republican from New York, said: “Congress must hold itself to the highest ethical standard, regardless of party.”<\/p>\n

Byron Donalds, a Florida Republican, told NBC News: “That vote comes to the floor, I will be voting yes on both measures… As far as I am concerned, both gentlemen need to go home.” <\/p>\n

Anna Paulina Luna, a Florida Republican, said on Saturday that she would file a motion to expel Swalwell.<\/p>\n

The BBC has contacted representatives for Swalwell and Gonzales for comment.<\/p>\n

An expulsion measure from the US House is extremely rare and requires support from two-thirds of lawmakers present and voting at the time it is called. Only six lawmakers have been expelled from the US House in its 237 year history.<\/p>\n

The Swalwell allegations surface at a crucial moment in the wide-open Democratic primary race to lead the nation’s most populous state – which has elected a Democrat to the role for the past 20 years – just weeks before voters receive postal ballots.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last month, Gonzales dropped his re-election bid after admitting to having an affair with a staff member. A…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":527800,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-527799","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=527799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/527800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}