General Discussion

I HAVE BEEN ACCUSED OF “BRAGGING” about being an “insider” for knowing this fact and saying it publicly in the wake of the revelations (triggered by some people intimating that the whole thing was an elaborate Republican plot, and by others asking this very question about the speed of politicians backing away), so let me be as transparent as possible. I was made aware of Swalwell’s conduct by a few people in the California political world shortly after he jumped into the governor’s race. I was told that stories about this were being produced when he was running for the 2020 presidential nomination, after which he dropped out and victims decided not to come forward. There are public claims on social media going back to 2020; this more recent one is from an aide to one of his opponents in the governor’s race, Antonio Villaraigosa. There are more private claims that go back all the way to when Swalwell entered Congress in 2013.

Unless and until you have a victim willing to tell their story, and unless and until it can be corroborated, these tips, even if told by credible people with no axe to grind, are just rumors. I tried chasing them down a bit and found out that victims were working with other reporters. At that point, there wasn’t much I could do in writing, though when people asked me as a California voter about the governor’s race, I would volunteer what I knew. Victims decide when the story breaks, and it would actually be monumentally harmful and disrespectful to jump out in front of them without the hard evidence.

That said, I’m a reporter on the outside. Members of Congress and people who raise money for Democrats and labor unions active in California politics have access to a lot more information. There is no believable way, given what I know about how news travels on Capitol Hill, that these people who backed Swalwell weren’t aware of at least rumors and more likely very credible information about this serial conduct, which as I understand it extends to many more than the four people who have gone public.