CBS Evening News
Two women who have accused Congressman Eric Swalwell of sending unwanted explicit photos say they are grateful he is facing consequences now and leaving Congress after acting with impunity for years.
Annika Albrecht and Ally Sammarco told the BBC's US partner CBS News they feel vindicated. But Albrecht said there is more to be done.
"For me, justice won't be until he can't ever harm a woman ever again, and he has faced the consequences for the women that he has harmed," she said.
Swalwell, a Democrat, said on Monday that he will resign. He has also dropped out of the California governor's race. He apologised to his wife and supporters for making mistakes but denied claims of sexual abuse.
In a statement, Swalwell has said he is "deeply sorry to my family, staff, and constituents for mistakes in judgement I've made in my past".
"I will fight the serious, false allegation made against me," he added. "However, I must take responsibility and ownership for the mistakes I did make."
He was elected to the House of Representatives in 2012 to represent a district near San Francisco.
Last week, four women accused him of misconduct ranging from sexual harassment to rape. As a result, Congress opened an ethics inquiry, and lawmakers were considering expelling the congressman.
"He was pushed into a corner, essentially, because they were planning to expel him … so i think he did that to save face a little," Sammarco told CBS News. "But I also felt very vindicated that he realized it was over for him."
Sammarco told CNN last week that Swalwell sent her unsolicited nude messages over Snapchat, an app that deletes messages after they're sent. The two met after she messaged him over Twitter when she was 24 to discuss careers in politics.
Albrecht, who had yet to publicly share her name, told CBS she met Swalwell while on a class trip in college and that he began talking to her "under the guise of professional mentorship".
She said he later also sent her "sexually inappropriate" messages on Snapchat and invited her to a hotel room.
"I keep thinking about how lucky I am that didn't go to that hotel," Albrecht said, adding that hearing other women's accounts has been "terrifying".
The Manhattan District Attorney's Office is investigating Swalwell over allegations from an unnamed former staff member in a San Francisco Chronicle story, which recounted accusations of sexual assault against the former congressman in California and New York.
The woman in the article said she woke up naked in his hotel bed in 2019 with fuzzy memories of the night before after going out for drinks with him.
Sammarco said Swalwell "thought he was untouchable".
"He acted with total impunity," she told CBS. "He never thought that the consequences of his actions would follow him."
"As governor, he would have had even more power and more authority," she added.
The two accusers were interviewed alongside Cheyenne Hunt, a Democratic influencer who posted a video describing several women's accusations against Swalwell, bringing the issue to the public's attention.
Hunt told CBS that more than 30 women had contacted her alleging some type of misconduct from Swalwell since she posted her first video on the issue.
Congress is returning from recess on Tuesday, with the ethics committee planning to take up inquiries into both Swalwell and Texas Republican Tony Gonzales, who had dropped his re-election bid after admitting having an affair with an aide.
