The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office sex crimes unit is weighing whether to bring charges in a case involving former Rep. Eric Swalwell, a spokesperson told NBC News on Thursday.
The county sheriff’s victims’ unit investigated the case, which was then forwarded to prosecutors on Sept. 21, according to the spokesperson.
Swalwell, a Democrat, resigned from Congress in April and dropped out of the California governor’s race after multiple sexual assault and misconduct allegations, which he denies.
Former model and fashion software company owner Lonna Drewes held a news conference in April with her attorneys in Los Angeles, accusing Swalwell of drugging, sexually assaulting and choking her. Los Angeles authorities confirmed at the time that they had launched a criminal investigation into the allegations.
An attorney for Swalwell said in an email Thursday that he is “innocent,” adding that “these allegations are false, and the facts will bear that out.”
“The reported referral to the Los Angeles County District Attorney is a standard procedural step. It is not a charging decision. It is not a finding of wrongdoing. It changes nothing about the facts,” said the attorney, Sara Azari. “We welcome a fair, independent review, and we are confident it will vindicate him.”
The FBI searched Swalwell’s Washington, D.C., home in August and seized an electronic device in connection with an investigation that was described as involving sexual misconduct allegations at the time, according to an official familiar with the matter.
The same month, FBI agents executing a search warrant stopped Swalwell at the San Francisco airport and took his electronic devices. A copy of the search warrant obtained by NBC News detailed that investigators seized an iPhone and a MacBook Pro computer.
The allegations first came to light in a San Francisco Chronicle article in which a former Swalwell aide said he had sexually assaulted her twice. A source familiar with the woman’s account confirmed to NBC News that the Chronicle’s reporting was accurate.
The article was followed by a CNN report in which four women, including one whose story matched the Chronicle article, made sexual misconduct allegations against him. One of the three others, Ally Sammarco, said Swalwell sent her unsolicited photos of his penis; Sammarco later spoke to NBC News and confirmed the accuracy of her account in the CNN article.
Swalwell denied the accusations published by the Chronicle and CNN in a video on social media on April 10, saying, “These allegations of sexual assault are flat false.”
“They did not happen. They have never happened. And I will fight them with everything I have,” he said.
Swalwell served in Congress for 13 years. A special election was held in June to fill the seat he vacated upon resignation; Democrat Aisha Wahab won the race to fill out the rest of his term. The election in November for a full two-year term will be a rematch between Wahab and fellow Democrat Melissa Hernandez.