{"id":272457,"date":"2026-04-17T11:17:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T11:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/272457\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T11:17:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T11:17:09","slug":"heres-why-eric-swalwell-escaped-accountability-for-so-long","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/272457\/","title":{"rendered":"Here’s why Eric Swalwell escaped accountability for so long"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The implosion of Eric Swalwell\u2019s gubernatorial campaign<\/a> and his once-promising political career has left a great many questions rising from the smoldering wreckage.<\/p>\n

Questions about his character, judgment and staggering recklessness<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The question \u2014 as misguided as it is inevitable \u2014 of why his accusers hadn\u2019t come forward sooner. (My columnizing colleague, Anita Chabria, incisively addressed that one<\/a>, discussing the nature of suppressed trauma and the believability hurdle<\/a> that many victims of sexual assault unduly face.)<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the question of how and why Swalwell\u2019s creepy and allegedly criminal behavior <\/a>stayed hidden from public view for so long \u2014 especially when the impossible-to-miss fixture of cable TV embarked on a high-profile campaign to lead <\/a>the nation\u2019s most-populous state.<\/p>\n

Swalwell, 45 and married<\/a>, had a widely whispered about reputation for showering inappropriate and unwelcome attention on younger women. Rumors \u2014 vague, unsubstantiated \u2014 were a source of incessant dirt-dishing among political insiders <\/a>and also circulated extensively online. (Not, however, the more serious allegations of sexual assault.) <\/p>\n

The veil was finally pierced last week when the San Francisco Chronicle published<\/a> a graphic account of a woman alleging sexual encounters with Swalwell while the Democratic lawmaker was her boss. She said he sexually assaulted her twice when she was too intoxicated to consent.<\/p>\n

A few hours later, CNN followed up with a report<\/a> that three other women had recounted various kinds of sexual misconduct. On Tuesday, yet another alleged victim came forth<\/a>, saying she was drugged and raped by Swalwell in 2018.<\/p>\n

The former congressman has flatly and vigorously denied criminal wrongdoing while acknowledging and apologizing for unspecific \u201cmistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those vociferous, flat-out denials<\/a> had been enough to sway the politicians and union leaders who endorsed Swalwell\u2019s gubernatorial bid, until the weight of evidence<\/a> made Swalwell\u2019s assertions untenable.<\/p>\n

If the allegations are true and Swalwell is, in fact, a liar, lecher and sexual assailant, why wasn\u2019t that widely reported up until now? Was it negligence, or gullibility on the part of the political press corps? The short answer is that a wide gulf exists between rumor and fact and Swalwell lurked in that gray space, living and thriving in the shadows between provability and denial.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not unusual for rumors about financial, sexual or other peccadilloes to attend a campaign. They\u2019re often trafficked by political rivals, which automatically raises suspicion and invites particular skepticism.<\/p>\n

Much of the chatter never moves past a relatively small, dishy circle of political gossips because the supposed misdeeds, while titillating, can\u2019t stand up to rigorous scrutiny. Or a legal challenge. That\u2019s the baseline for many news outlets to broadcast or publish a story. Call them what you will \u2014 legacy, corporate, mainstream, lamestream \u2014 many of the largest, most influential sources of news and information won\u2019t pass along allegations they can\u2019t independently verify and, if necessary, defend in court<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The challenge is verifying all that loose talk.<\/p>\n

Politicians don\u2019t wear body cams, or broadcast their lives 24\/7. (OK, Beto O\u2019Rourke did livestream<\/a> from a Texas laundromat during his 2018 Senate bid, holding up a soggy pair of underwear when he addressed the \u201cboxers or briefs\u201d question. But he\u2019s an exception.)<\/p>\n

Journalists don\u2019t have subpoena power and can\u2019t force people to tell them what they know. A reporter is only as good as his or her sources, their knowledge, truthfulness and credibility.<\/p>\n

Reporting on misdeeds of an intimate nature can be especially difficult and complex. There\u2019s rarely black-and-white documentation, such as a money trail leading to a hotel bedroom. It\u2019s hard to find an eyewitness or reliable third party who can vouch for what took place between people behind closed doors. It takes time and trust to develop sources who can substantiate incidents of sexual misconduct, assault or abuse. <\/p>\n

Swalwell apparently did an excellent job deceiving those around him, including some congressional and campaign staffers who\u2019d known him for years and worked closely with the seven-term lawmaker, day in, day out. They were shocked by the statements of his alleged victims; the words \u201cdouble life\u201d have come up many times. <\/p>\n

If Swalwell managed to hoodwink those closest to him, it\u2019s easy to see why journalists had a hard time wrangling the firsthand accounts and other facts they needed to make their findings public.<\/p>\n

When it comes to reporting on scandal, there is often the question of timing.<\/p>\n

In 2003, The Times was widely criticized for publishing an account <\/a>of Arnold Schwarzenegger\u2019s misconduct \u2014 touching women in a sexual manner without their consent \u2014 just days before California\u2019s gubernatorial recall election. Despite the report, which Schwarzenegger did not contest<\/a>, voters kicked Gray Davis out<\/a> and replaced him with the Hollywood super-duper star.<\/p>\n

In 1992, the Washington Post and Portland Oregonian were widely criticized for their failure to publish accounts of Sen. Bob Packwood\u2019s misconduct \u2014 unwanted sexual advances and touching women <\/a>without their consent \u2014 until weeks after he was elected to his fifth term. Packwood resigned in 1995<\/a> after the Senate Ethics Commission voted unanimously to expel him.<\/p>\n

The allegations against Swalwell were revealed well before the June 2 primary. Not soon enough for those asking how he managed to get away for so long with his predatory behavior. But plenty of time to inform California voters before they weighed in on his candidacy.<\/p>\n

Public attention will soon shift. But for Swalwell, the legal and other ramifications <\/a>are just beginning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The implosion of Eric Swalwell\u2019s gubernatorial campaign and his once-promising political career has left a great many questions…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272458,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[4302,67594,217,24115,9614,86584,48,52,51,47,50,49,4763,1423,37856,118146,2531,7701,6708,315,1557],"class_list":{"0":"post-272457","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-arnold-schwarzenegger","9":"tag-consent","10":"tag-day","11":"tag-eric-swalwell","12":"tag-fact","13":"tag-firsthand-account","14":"tag-la","15":"tag-la-headlines","16":"tag-la-news","17":"tag-los-angeles","18":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","19":"tag-los-angeles-news","20":"tag-politician","21":"tag-question","22":"tag-rumor","23":"tag-serious-allegation","24":"tag-sexual-assault","25":"tag-sexual-misconduct","26":"tag-source","27":"tag-time","28":"tag-woman"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}