Free Republic

Eric Swalwell resigns from Congress, complains that his colleagues in the House were denying him "due process" with an expulsion vote days after a former staffer accused him of sexual assault

U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales announced on Monday he would resign from Congress, avoiding an expected vote on his expulsion after he admitted to having an affair with a staffer. Gonzales, a Republican from San Antonio, has faced intensifying scrutiny in recent months after the San Antonio Express-News first revealed evidence that he engaged in a sexual relationship with a staffer who later died by suicide, prompting a House Ethics Committee review and calls from colleagues for him to step down. Pressure further mounted when another aide came forward, saying Gonzales pressed her for nude photos and sex during his first...

A video showing a Fairfield homeowner fighting off a home invader may cause “concern” as it circulates on social media, police said Saturday. The video depicts a resident of the 1700 block of Burbank Court using a shovel to battle the intruder on Tuesday before police arrived. Police praised “the actions of the homeowner, who worked to protect his family while officers were responding to the scene.” A man later identified as 30-year-old Jason Nichols attempted to break into the residence occupied by a woman and child by kicking the front door, police said. When that failed, he gained entry...

I am suspending my campaign for Governor. 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.

Two high-profile Democrats on Sunday called for Rep. Eric Swalwell to exit Congress as controversy continues to grow after sexual assault allegations surfaced against the California candidate for governor. Eugene Vindman said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union" that Swalwell should resign from Congress and drop out of California's gubernatorial race. "The accusations are absolutely heinous, and his admissions betraying his family are deplorable," Vindman said to host Dana Bash. "So Eric Swalwell needs to resign. He needs to drop out of the race… we should not tolerate this behavior, and Representative Swalwell needs to go." Vindman made the...

A wave of sexual assault accusations against Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) hit on Friday. In the time since, a number in the media and political spheres have claimed that they knew all along that the California congressman was at best, a pest — and at worst, involved in behavior that might be criminal — but never went public with that information. Local reporter Steven Tavares, author of the East Bay Insider, said that he had been covering Swalwell for more than a decade — beginning when he was just a member of the Dublin City Council — and that he...

A man is now behind bars and being charged with a fatal stabbing in North Carolina that left a U.S. Marine from SoCal dead. The deadly incident occurred on April 5, according to authorities in Wilmington, North Carolina. Around 2 a.m., the Wilmington Police Department responded to reports of multiple fights in the 1300 block of Corbett Street, which is located in the city’s downtown area. The investigation revealed that two people were stabbed, including Daniel Montano of San Bernardino.

Four women have accused married Eric Swalwell of horrific acts of sexual assault and misconduct — including a former staffer who claims he raped her. The California governor candidate’s campaign was hanging by a thread Friday when the alleged victims aired bombshell details of what they say happened to them. One of the women, a former staffer, claimed he raped her when she was drunk and left her bruised and bleeding during the alleged 2024 attack. She also claimed she woke up naked next to him in a hotel room in 2019 after a heavy night of drinking and felt...

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on Tuesday announced the creation of a National Fraud Enforcement Division at the Department of Justice, marking a significant step in the Trump administration's efforts to crack down on misuse of public funds. "There will be an additional 93 prosecutors in every district across the country devoted to the mission of combating fraud with the National Fraud Enforcement Division," he told reporters. "Because of this administration's leadership, fraudsters, scammers, tax cheats, or anyone who lies to get rich off the generosity of the American people should be on notice," Blanche said. Blanche, moreover, announced that...

Meet Cali’s First Lady of optics and fairy tales, Jennifer Siebel Newsom. Jennifer Siebel Newsom ran down her sister with a golf cart and told San Quentin convicts that their crimes were “probably accidents too.” This displays Democrats’ toxic empathy for criminals, but there’s more about Gavin Newsom’s wife people should know. Born in 1974, the Stanford grad (Latin American Studies plus an MBA) moved to Hollywood, where she gained roles in television shows such as “Strong Medicine,” a creation of Whoopi Goldberg. In 2008 the Barbie-style blond married Gavin Newsom, who boasts ties to the Brown, Pelosi and Getty...

California Democrats, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., have come out against Democratic gubernatorial candidate Eric Swalwell after multiple bombshell reports were published Friday accusing Swalwell of sexually assaulting a former female staffer and allegedly sexually harassing other female staffers. Amid repeated denials and cease and desist letters sent by Swalwell's lawyer Thursday, one of the alleged victims shared her story publicly for the first time, accusing Swalwell of taking advantage of her while she was intoxicated. The alleged victim's story also included claims Swalwell pressured her to send naked pictures of herself and...

Rep. Eric Swalwell’s (D-Calif.) campaign for California governor lost two co-chairs and key endorsements on Friday after the San Francisco Chronicle reported on allegations that he sexually assaulted a former staffer. The Chronicle reported that a woman who previously worked for Swalwell alleged that he sexually assaulted her twice when she was too intoxicated to consent. The Hill has not independently verified these claims. Swalwell denied the allegations in a statement to the outlet. “These allegations are false and come on the eve of an election against the frontrunner for governor,” Swalwell told the Chronicle. The Hill has reached out...

A Palo Alto father who has filed multiple lawsuits against major university systems over his son's college rejections says artificial intelligence has become the key to pursuing the cases after no law firm agreed to represent them. The legal fight stems from a 2023 ABC7 News story about Stanley Zhong, then an 18-year-old Gunn High School student with a 4.4 GPA and a near-perfect 1590 SAT score who was rejected by 16 out of the 18 colleges he applied to. Despite the rejections, he was later hired as a software engineer at Google. Two and a half years later, his...

The post-transphobia commonwealthWhat is the difference between an audacious and a mediocre dead-horse take? Frankly, I don’t know anymore. Some people may read what I have to say as the musings of a neoliberal bubble-inhabiting princess, and others may see them as a call from the Kremlin to stir workers of the world and unite against the master. Whatever you make of my positionality, I have an observation to share with my UC Berkeley compatriots in the Red Army: We may be deluding ourselves into thinking our particular tract of society is an egalitarian wet dream. Oftentimes, when I talk...

The shooting of Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez by federal immigration agents on Tuesday is a sickening reminder. It is a sign of what’s to come if California doesn’t do more to protect its communities from government agents behaving like a lawless occupying force

A local publication has accused Spencer Pratt of being ineligible to run for LA mayor because he is staying at his family’s property near Santa Barbara after his home was destroyed in the Palisades Fire. If Pratt is unable to run for mayor, then I am unable to vote for mayor. We lost our home in the Palisades Fire, along with nearly 7,000 other families. We have been displaced since Jan. 7, 2025. My family has moved three times while we rebuild our home.

A deputy with the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office was shot and killed while in the line of duty on Thursday. The deputy, who has not yet been identified, was among those serving an eviction notice around 10:20 a.m. when he was shot in the area of North Newcomb Street and West Grand Avenue in Porterville. The suspected shooter, 60-year-old David Morales, has continued to fire shots at deputies, according to the sheriff’s office. People in the area are being urged to shelter in place and schools are on lockdown. The detective who was struck was taken to Sierra View Medical...

Bay Area-based Philz Coffee says the company will remove Pride and other flags from all its cafes. SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- A new policy by Bay Area-based Philz Coffee has some people upset as the chain says it will no longer allow flags of any kind in its stores, including Pride flags. What started out as a single cafe in the city's Mission District has since become a quintessential part of the San Francisco coffee scene. But after over two decades of building a solid customer base around the Bay Area, Philz Coffee is now disappointing many. "I think it's...

A massive six-alarm fire destroyed a 1.2-million-square-foot Kimberly-Clark distribution center in Ontario early Tuesday morning. Police arrested 29-year-old Chamel Abdulkarim, an employee of a third-party distribution partner, on suspicion of felony arson. While no injuries were reported among the 20 employees onsite, the building and its contents are considered a total loss. SNIP

<p>The California Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered a county sheriff who seized more than half a million 2025 election ballots to pause his probe into election fraud allegations while the judges review the legal challenge against it.</p><p>The order came after California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, last month asked the court to step in. A voting rights group is also challenging the ballot seizure.</p>