WASHINGTON—The sexual assault allegations that toppled Rep. Eric Swalwell’s bid for California governor are now threatening to end his congressional career with legislators from both parties saying they would return a vote to expel him from the House.
Swalwell dropped out of the California gubernatorial primary Sunday night after accusations of sexual assault and misconduct by a former staffer and other women doomed his campaign and drove away his closest allies. But Swalwell, who has denied the accusations, has not said whether he intends to resign his House seat.
The allegations, detailed in reports by the San Francisco Chronicle and cnnhave drawn swift bipartisan condemnation, with lawmakers calling the accusations “disgusting” and demanding that he either resign or be removed from office.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) is leading the charge to expel Swalwell. In an interview Monday, Luna said she plans to file a motion as early as Tuesday on the grounds that he violated House rules over an alleged inappropriate sexual relationship with a subordinate. A vote could be forced on the House floor as early as Wednesday, she said.
Democrats have called on Swalwell to resign, but when it comes to expulsion, they won’t move against Swalwell alone. They are 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’s enough support to get both done.
“I think we absolutely have the votes to expel them both,” Luna said in an interview Monday morning. “If we don’t hold our own parties accountable, it’s a poor reflection on us as a whole.”
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’s responsibility to “hold one another accountable, especially when it brings dishonor upon the institution.”
In the letter, which was reviewed by The Times, Luna called on House leaders to bring the motions up for a vote on Wednesday “so that we can get rid of the corruption and get back to the business of making life better for the American people.”
Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, a Democrat from New Mexico, said she would support the motion to expel Swalwell and introduce the motion to push out Gonzales.
“As I’ve said, Gonzales and Swalwell are not fit to serve in Congress given their sexual transgressions against women who work for them,” Fernández wrote on X on Sunday. “They should resign or be expelled.”
If successful, the expulsions would be the first in congressional history on the grounds of sexual misconduct, and among the rare instances in the House’s 237-year history in which members have expelled their own.
Only six members have been expelled 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.
If Swalwell were to be expelled or resign, he would still be 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.
While many of Swalwell’s staffers have already quit, remaining staffers not involved in constituent services would lose their jobs and receive no severity pay.
Daniel Schuman, executive director of the American Governance Institute, which is focused on congressional reform, argues that the practice is unfair.
“I think the House owes them a duty for what they’ve had to go through,” Schuman said.
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.
“It’s really important at this moment that the House act to expel these men who have been seriously and credibly accused of wrongdoing,” said McGehee, a former executive director of the ethics watchdog Issue One. “To allow either one of them to stay in office and serve out their term would be a farce.”
The Swalwell scandal could prompt an ever larger emergence 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.
“Reps. Swalwell, Gonzales, Cherfilus-McCormick, and Mills should resign. If they refuse, they should be expelled,” Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-N.Y.) wrote on Monday. “Americans deserve better and Congress must hold our members accountable.”
Any expulsion would require a two-thirds majority vote, or 290 of 435 votes if every House member participates. The Senate would not be required to concur with the House vote to make the expulsion effective, but it remains to be seen whether the House can meet the two-thirds threshold.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D.N.Y.) said in an interview with MS Now on Sunday that he plans to have discussions with his caucuses on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“We plan to have a conversation first among the leadership on Tuesday upon our return,” Jeffries said. “And then of course, we will agree as a caucus on Wednesday morning to have a discussion about the possibility of both censorship resolutions and expulsion resolutions.”
Jeffries added that, in the meantime, the allegations are “very serious” and they “require a serious investigation.”
On Monday, the House Ethics Committee opened an investigation into the misconduct allegations against Swalwell.
In a statement, the Republican-led committee said it will look into whether Swalwell “violated the Code of Official Conduct or any law, rule, regulation, or other applicable standard of conduct in the performance of his duties or the discharge of his responsibilities, with respect to allegations that he may have engaged in sexual misconduct, including towards an employee working under his supervision.”
The committee’s statement noted that “the mere fact that it is investigating these allegations, and publicly disclosing its review, does not itself indicate that any violation has occurred.”
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