A 50-year-old California fashion executive stepped before cameras Tuesday and accused former Rep. Eric Swalwell of drugging her drink, choking her unconscious, and raping her in a hotel room in 2018, allegations Swalwell's attorney has flatly denied. Lonna Drewes, sitting beside attorney Lisa Bloom at a Beverly Hills press conference, became the latest woman to publicly attach her name to misconduct claims against the Democratic congressman, and she said she plans to file a formal criminal complaint with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
The accusation lands in the middle of a widening crisis for Swalwell. He has already ended his California gubernatorial campaign, and AP News reported that his attorney, Sara Azari, issued a statement saying Swalwell "categorically and unequivocally denies each and every allegation of sexual misconduct and assault that has been leveled against him." But Drewes is pressing forward, and the details she offered Tuesday paint a grim picture that demands serious scrutiny.
Before Tuesday, Drewes was known, to the extent she was publicly known at all, as a career fashion-industry professional. The New York Post reported that in the early to mid-2000s she managed over 100 models in New York City as the president and owner of a talent agency and production company. Her LinkedIn profile lists chief executive roles at three fashion-technology firms: Global Fashion Data, StyleTrust, and Perfect Fit.
Drewes says she worked with brands including Marc Jacobs, Christian Siriano, Joie, Juicy Couture, Paige Denim, Current/Elliott, and Kendall + Kylie during her New York modeling career. She played a small part in the 2015 movie Gnome Alone, which starred Verne Troyer. A colleague credited Drewes on LinkedIn for inspiring her to start her own company.
She has been a California resident for years. She moved to Santa Barbara County last year and appeared active in fashion as recently as late last year. Her recent Instagram content has largely revolved around travel, Belize, Hawaii, and in one post she wrote, "Grateful for this next chapter."
None of that biography explains why she would fabricate an accusation against a sitting congressman. Swalwell's camp has offered a blanket denial. Drewes has offered specifics.
Drewes told reporters she first met Swalwell under what she described as a "business relationship." She said she was interested in the "professional connections he offered to provide", specifically, that Swalwell told her he could introduce her to people in Silicon Valley. The two met on multiple occasions. The alleged assault, Drewes said, occurred on their third meeting.
She said that after one glass of wine, she believed Swalwell put something in her drink. He then brought her back to his hotel room, she told reporters. What she described next was stark.
"He raped me, and he choked me. And while he was choking me, I lost consciousness. I thought I died. I did not consent to any sexual activity, although I did not undergo a rape kit at the time, I disclosed the assault to the people closest to me."
That quote, delivered at the press conference with Bloom beside her, is the core of the public accusation. Just The News reported that Drewes said she told friends about the incident, recorded it in a handwritten calendar, and later disclosed it during therapy sessions at a sexual assault center in Connecticut.
Bloom, Drewes's attorney, said journal entries, text messages, photographs, and therapy disclosures would all be included in a forthcoming report to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Bloom said the report would be filed immediately and that Drewes would cooperate with law enforcement.
Drewes said she did not report the alleged crime to police at the time because she feared the repercussions, a claim her attorneys have framed around Swalwell's political influence. Whether that explanation holds up will depend on what the criminal complaint and any subsequent investigation produce.
Drewes is not alone. Fox News described her as the fifth woman to accuse Swalwell of sexual misconduct. That number, five public accusers, is significant. It moves the story well beyond a single allegation that might be dismissed as isolated.
Swalwell has already ended his gubernatorial campaign amid the mounting accusations, a decision that we covered when it broke. He is also expected to resign from Congress, though the precise timeline for that step remains unclear.
The political machinery has begun to move. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna has moved to expel Swalwell from Congress in response to the sexual assault allegations. Meanwhile, the Manhattan DA has opened its own investigation into the claims, a separate legal track that could compound Swalwell's exposure.
Breitbart noted that Drewes described Swalwell as initially presenting himself as a friend and professional contact, a pattern that, if corroborated by other accusers, would suggest a deliberate approach rather than a misunderstanding. The outlet also reported that Drewes said she believed she was drugged after consuming just one glass of wine.
Swalwell's troubles did not begin this month. He faced years of questions about his relationship with a suspected Chinese intelligence operative, a national-security matter that FBI Director Kash Patel has moved to address by declassifying related files. House Democrats nonetheless kept Swalwell on the Intelligence Committee for years, and party leaders largely treated questions about his judgment as partisan noise.
Now five women have come forward. A criminal complaint is about to be filed. A congressman's career is collapsing in real time. And the same party that spent years lecturing the country about believing women went conspicuously quiet when the accused was one of their own attack dogs on cable news.
Separate from the sexual assault claims, Homeland Security has opened an investigation into Swalwell over the alleged illegal hiring of a Brazilian nanny, yet another thread in what has become a tangle of legal and ethical questions surrounding the congressman.
Drewes's account is detailed, but important questions remain. The exact location of the alleged 2018 assault has not been specified beyond a hotel room. No rape kit was administered at the time. Drewes has not explained why she chose this particular moment, years later, to go public, beyond a general reference to fearing repercussions from Swalwell's political power.
The corroborating evidence Bloom has described, journal entries, texts, photographs, therapy records, has not yet been made public or submitted to law enforcement. Whether that material supports Drewes's timeline and account will matter enormously. So will the question of whether the other four accusers describe similar patterns of behavior.
Swalwell's blanket denial, issued through his attorney, offers no specifics. He has not addressed Drewes by name or disputed any particular detail of her account. That may be a legal strategy. It is not an answer.
Due process matters. Accusations are not convictions. But five accusers, a formal criminal complaint, a collapsed campaign, and an expected resignation add up to something that Democratic leadership can no longer wave away, no matter how useful Swalwell once was to the party's messaging operation.
When the accused sits on your side of the aisle, "believe all women" turns out to have a lot of fine print.