L.A. County prosecutors weigh expenses in Eric Swalwell case – NBC Los Angeles

The Los Angeles County District Lawyer’s Workplace intercourse crimes unit is weighing whether or not to convey expenses in a case involving former Rep. Eric Swalwell, a spokesperson advised NBC Information on Thursday.

The county sheriff’s victims’ unit investigated the case, which was then forwarded to prosecutors on Sept. 21, in response to the spokesperson.

Swalwell, a Democrat, resigned from Congress in April and dropped out of the California governor’s race after a number of sexual assault and misconduct allegations, which he denies.

Former mannequin and style software program firm proprietor Lonna Drewes held a information convention in April along with her attorneys in Los Angeles, accusing Swalwell of drugging, sexually assaulting and choking her. Los Angeles authorities confirmed on the time that that they had launched a legal investigation into the allegations.

An lawyer for Swalwell mentioned in an e mail Thursday that he’s “harmless,” including that “these allegations are false, and the details will bear that out.”

“The reported referral to the Los Angeles County District Lawyer is an ordinary procedural step. It isn’t a charging choice. It isn’t a discovering of wrongdoing. It adjustments nothing concerning the details,” mentioned the lawyer, Sara Azari. “We welcome a good, impartial assessment, and we’re assured it’ll vindicate him.”

The FBI searched Swalwell’s Washington, D.C., residence in August and seized an digital machine in reference to an investigation that was described as involving sexual misconduct allegations on the time, in response to an official aware of the matter.

The identical month, FBI brokers executing a search warrant stopped Swalwell on the San Francisco airport and took his digital units. A duplicate of the search warrant obtained by NBC Information detailed that investigators seized an iPhone and a MacBook Professional laptop.

The allegations first got here to gentle in a San Francisco Chronicle article during which a former Swalwell aide mentioned he had sexually assaulted her twice. A supply aware of the girl’s account confirmed to NBC Information that the Chronicle’s reporting was correct.

The article was adopted by a CNN report during which 4 ladies, together with one whose story matched the Chronicle article, made sexual misconduct allegations in opposition to him. One of many three others, Ally Sammarco, mentioned Swalwell despatched her unsolicited pictures of his penis; Sammarco later spoke to NBC Information and confirmed the accuracy of her account within the CNN article.

Swalwell denied the accusations printed by the Chronicle and CNN in a video on social media on April 10, saying, “These allegations of sexual assault are flat false.”

“They didn’t occur. They’ve by no means occurred. And I’ll struggle them with the whole lot I’ve,” he mentioned.

Swalwell served in Congress for 13 years. A particular election was held in June to fill the seat he vacated upon resignation; Democrat Aisha Wahab received the race to fill out the remainder of his time period. The election in November for a full two-year time period can be a rematch between Wahab and fellow Democrat Melissa Hernandez.