WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Rep. Eric Swalwell resigned his congressional seat on Monday under intense pressure from lawmakers of both parties who called on him to step down after several women, including a former staffer who alleged rape, accused him of sexual misconduct.<\/p>\n
Swalwell, a Dublin Democrat who suspended his campaign for California governor on Sunday, said in a statement that he was stepping down from the House, where he has served since 2013, and planned to continue fighting what he called \u201cserious, false allegation\u201d made against him. <\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, I must take responsibility and ownership of the mistakes I did make,\u201d Swalwell wrote without specifying which mistakes those were.<\/p>\n
His resignation came hours after the House Ethics Committee opened an investigation into the sexual misconduct allegations against him and as lawmakers from both parties threatened to expel him from the House if he did not leave his post. He said he was aware of the expulsion efforts underway and said that it was \u201cwrong\u201d to expel a member of Congress \u201cwithout due process, within days of an allegation being made.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it is also wrong for my constituents to have me distracted from my duties. Therefore, I plan to resign my seat in Congress,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The allegations, detailed in reports by the San Francisco Chronicle<\/a> and CNN last week<\/a>, drew swift bipartisan condemnation, with lawmakers from both parties calling the accusations \u201cdisgusting\u201d and demanding that he either resign or be removed from office.<\/p>\n Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) intended to lead the charge to expel Swalwell. In an interview Monday, Luna said she planned to file a motion as early as Tuesday<\/a> on the grounds that he violated House rules over an alleged inappropriate sexual relationship with a subordinate. A vote could have been on the House floor as early as Wednesday, she said.<\/p>\n After the sexual allegations came to light, Democrats called on Swalwell to resign, but when it comes to expulsion, they said they would not move against Swalwell alone. They were also pushing to expel Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas), who last month admitted to a sexual relationship with a staffer who later died by suicide. Luna thinks there\u2019s enough support to get both done.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we absolutely have the votes to expel them both,\u201d Luna said in an interview Monday morning. \u201cIf we don\u2019t hold our own parties accountable, it\u2019s a poor reflection on us as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n Luna wrote a letter to her colleagues on Monday afternoon urging them to support the expulsion of both Swalwell and Gonzales, saying it was the every member\u2019s responsibility to \u201chold one another accountable, especially when it brings dishonor upon the institution.\u201d<\/p>\n In the letter, which was reviewed by The Times, Luna called on House leaders to bring the motions up for a vote on Wednesday \u201cso that we can get rid of the corruption and get back to the business of making life better for the American people.\u201d <\/p>\n Rep. Teresa Leger Fern\u00e1ndez, a Democrat from New Mexico, said she would support the motion to expel Swalwell and introduce the motion to push out Gonzales.<\/p>\n \u201cAs I\u2019ve said, Gonzales and Swalwell are not fit to serve in Congress given their sexual transgressions against women who work for them,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez wrote on X on Sunday. \u201cThey should resign or be expelled.\u201d<\/p>\n It is unclear whether the push to expel Gonzales stands. But if successful, Swalwell\u2019s expulsions would have been the first in congressional history on the grounds of sexual misconduct, and among the rare instances in the House\u2019s 237-year history in which members expelled one of their own.<\/p>\n Only six members have been expelled<\/a> from the House. Three were fighting for the Confederacy, two were convicted of bribery and one was the fraudster George Santos, whose sentence was later commuted by President Trump.<\/p>\n Now that Swalwell has resigned, he is still eligible for his pension and for a number of other perks extended to other former members, including the ability to enter the House floor and access to the congressional gym. <\/p>\n While many of Swalwell\u2019s staffers have already quit, remaining staffers not involved in constituent services would lose their jobs and receive no severance pay. Swalwell said Monday that he is working with his staff to \u201censure they are able, in my absence, to serve the needs of the good people of the 14th congressional district.\u201d<\/p>\n Daniel Schuman, executive director of the American Governance Institute, which is focused on congressional reform, argues that the practice is unfair. <\/p>\n \u201cI think the House owes them a duty for what they\u2019ve had to go through,\u201d Schuman said. <\/p>\n Longtime ethics expert Meredith McGehee said that members have been reluctant to expel their colleagues in recent years because of the razor-thin majorities in the House, but that not doing so hurts the credibility of the institution.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really important at this moment that the House act to expel these men who have been seriously and credibly accused of wrongdoing,\u201d said McGehee, a former executive director of the ethics watchdog Issue One<\/a>. \u201cTo allow either one of them to stay in office and serve out their term would be a farce.\u201d<\/p>\n The Swalwell scandal could prompt an ever larger surge of expulsion calls. Some lawmakers are calling for two additional members to be swept into any expulsion vote: Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.), who has been accused of sexual assault, and Rep. Sheila Cherfilous-McCormick (D-Fla.), who was indicted on charges that she laundered $5 million of federal disaster money and used it to fund a political campaign. <\/p>\n