LOS ANGELES—Billionaire Stephen Cloobeck said he has evicted California Representative Eric Swalwell, 45, from his $26 million Beverly Hills mansion and is demanding the return of more than $1 million in campaign contributions as the Democrat’s political career unraveled over sexual misconduct allegations from at least four women—Swalwell is currently married.
A former staffer accused the California Democrat of sexually assaulting her twice when she was too intoxicated to consent. She alleged the first incident occurred in 2019 while she worked in his district office, the SF Chronical reported. The second allegedly happened in 2024 in a New York City hotel room, where she said she repeatedly told him “no” as he forced himself on her, leaving her bruised and bleeding. Prosecutors in Manhattan and Alameda County are investigating.
CNN then reported three other women accused Swalwell of sexual harassment, including sending unsolicited explicit images and making unwanted physical advances. Lonna Drewes publicly alleged that Swalwell drugged her drink and raped and choked her in a West Hollywood hotel in 2018.
A woman named Lonna Drewes at a news conference just now accused Eric Swalwell of drugging her drink and sexually assaulting her. Here's part of her statement. pic.twitter.com/6A2gTmtA3S
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 14, 2026
Swalwell has vehemently denied all the claims, calling them “flat-out false.”
Rep. Swalwell, who entered the 2026 California gubernatorial race to succeed term-limited Gov. Gavin Newsom, had been one of the leading Democratic candidates in a crowded, jungle primary. He has suspended his campaign and announced that he would resign from Congress.
“I am suspending my campaign for Governor,” he wrote. “To my family, staff, friends, and supporters, I am deeply sorry for mistakes in judgment I’ve made in my past. I will fight the serious, false allegations that have been made — but that’s my fight, not a campaign’s.”
Prior to the allegations surfacing, a March Emerson College poll showed him leading with 17 percent support, ahead of Republican Steve Hilton at 13 percent and other Democrats including Tom Steyer and Katie Porter.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA07) said she would have voted to expel Swalwell — and Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, who faces separate misconduct allegations — had they not stepped down. “This is not a partisan issue,” Jayapal told NBC’s Meet the Press.
The scandal carries particular irony for Swalwell, who relentlessly attacked President Donald Trump portraying him as a threat to democracy. Now, Rep. Swalwell is facing allegations of his own sexual misconduct.
The congressman has long maintained he was the victim of a suspected Chinese intelligence operation. In 2020 reports revealed that Christine Fang, a suspected Chinese spy also known as Fang Fang, cultivated relationships with Swalwell and other California politicians in the early 2010s. Swalwell said he met her more than eight years earlier, cooperated fully with the FBI after receiving a defensive briefing around 2015, immediately cut off all contact and shared no classified information. A later House Ethics Committee review found no wrongdoing.
Billionaire donor Cloobeck, who had poured more than $1 million into Swalwell’s gubernatorial bid and allowed the congressman to stay at his 9,700-square-foot estate, publicly cut ties hours before Swalwell dropped out.
In an interview with Fox11 in LA, Cloobeck said he left the Democratic Party over Swalwell’s misconduct scandal. “F— the Democratic Party,” he told the New York Post in a separate interview. He now identifies as a Libertarian Republican.
Cloobeck, 64, is the founder, former chairman and CEO of Diamond Resorts International, a major timeshare and vacation-ownership company he built and sold for more than $2 billion in 2016. A onetime major Democratic donor who once warned party leaders he would cut off contributions if they attacked the wealthy, Cloobeck briefly considered his own run for California governor before dropping out late last year to endorse Swalwell.
Author: Mario Lotmore
