Eric Swalwell's campaign fund paid for rooms at the same five-star Manhattan hotel where a former staffer says the then-congressman raped her, financial disclosure records reviewed by the New York Post show. The disbursements, two separate charges of $1,095.52 each, dated February 26, 2024, went to the Times Square Edition on Seventh Avenue, a boutique hotel where rooms run north of $1,000 a night.
The former staffer, who was 25 at the time and was not working for Swalwell when the alleged incident occurred, told the San Francisco Chronicle that the alleged rape took place at that same hotel. She told CNN she had been too intoxicated to remember leaving the last bar she and Swalwell visited that evening.
The financial trail matters because it connects donor money directly to the location of a serious criminal allegation, one now under active investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney's office. Swalwell, a married father of three who built a national profile on cable news, has since resigned his congressional seat and suspended his campaign for governor of California.
The night in question centered on an April 25 awards gala for the Brady Campaign, an anti-gun violence nonprofit, held at the Ziegfeld Ballroom. The Times Square Edition sits just a ten-minute walk from that venue. Swalwell and the former staffer both attended the event, then went out drinking afterward, according to accounts she gave to CNN and the San Francisco Chronicle.
Campaign finance disclosure filings record the date a candidate or staffer seeks reimbursement for travel expenses, not necessarily the date of the hotel stay itself. The Post noted the two $1,095.52 payments are dated nearly two months before the April 25 gala. That gap leaves open the question of whether the February disbursements covered the April stay or an earlier visit, but the hotel is the same either way.
The broader spending pattern removes any ambiguity about how frequently Swalwell's operation used the property. Between January 2023 and February 2024, his campaign racked up $14,476.11 in charges for rooms and incidentals at the Times Square Edition alone. That is a considerable tab at a luxury hotel, paid for by the small-dollar donors Swalwell courted during his years as a progressive media favorite.
The former staffer's account is not the only accusation Swalwell faces. Four other women have come forward to accuse him of sexual misconduct. Among them is Lonna Drewes, a former model who alleges Swalwell raped her in July 2018 at the Montrose West Hollywood hotel. The Post reported that taxpayers also footed the bill for Swalwell's stay at that property.
Five accusers. Two hotels paid for with other people's money. And a congressman who spent years lecturing the country about accountability on CNN before any of this surfaced.
The Manhattan DA's office launched its investigation into the alleged 2024 incident in Midtown. No charges have been filed as of the Post's reporting, and Swalwell has denied the allegations. The exact nature and wording of his denial were not detailed in the financial records or the Post's account of them.
Federal campaign finance rules allow officeholders to use campaign funds for travel expenses connected to official duties, fundraising, or political events. Attending a nonprofit gala in New York falls within that broad permission. But the rules assume a baseline of good faith, that the money is spent on legitimate political activity, not on enabling personal conduct that could constitute a felony.
Swalwell's New York spending habits paint a picture of a congressman who treated donor funds as a personal travel account for a luxury lifestyle. The Times Square Edition is not a Holiday Inn Express near LaGuardia. It is a five-star property in the heart of Manhattan, and his campaign returned to it repeatedly over more than a year.
The political fallout has been swift. Swalwell resigned his House seat, and Governor Gavin Newsom has already scheduled a special election to fill it. His gubernatorial campaign is frozen. The man who once ran for president and positioned himself as a voice of moral clarity on impeachment and gun control now faces a criminal probe and a growing list of accusers.
Congressional ethics mechanisms have a long history of moving slowly when a member's conduct becomes inconvenient for the majority. In Swalwell's case, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna moved to expel him after the sexual assault allegations surfaced, a step that underscored how seriously at least some members viewed the charges, even as institutional Washington hesitated.
Swalwell's resignation may have spared the House a drawn-out expulsion fight, but it did nothing to answer the central question: What happened in that hotel room on April 25?
The former staffer said she was too intoxicated to remember leaving the last bar. She told the San Francisco Chronicle the alleged assault happened at the Times Square Edition. She described vaginal bleeding and bruising. Those are specific, physical details, not vague accusations lobbed for political convenience.
Swalwell denied the allegations. The Manhattan DA's office is investigating. The financial records show who paid for the room.
Several questions remain open. The campaign finance filings do not confirm whether the February 2024 disbursements covered the specific April stay or an earlier booking. The Manhattan DA's office has not disclosed the status or scope of its investigation beyond the fact that one exists. And the precise terms of Swalwell's denial, what he says happened that night, in his own words, have not been made public in the reporting reviewed.
What the records do confirm is a pattern: a congressman who spent lavishly at high-end hotels on donor money, who now faces sexual assault allegations tied to at least two of those properties, and who left office rather than face the consequences while still holding power.
Donors gave that money expecting it would fund a political campaign. They deserve to know whether it funded something far worse.