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Disgraced congressman Eric Swalwell has reportedly unleashed a private investigator on former staffers who could have knowledge of his alleged sex crimes — as one ex-aide teams up with the Manhattan District Attorney on its investigation of him.
Swalwell’s hotshot attorney Sara Azari hired a professional snoop from New York firm Beau Dietl & Associates to question at least one former aide to the former congressman about their time in his office, NOTUS reported.
The private eye reportedly told the ex-staffer she wanted to “get to the bottom” of what happened with Swalwell by speaking with his former colleagues and that she’d be able to avoid a subpoena if the staffer cooperated with the questioning.
The ex-staffer was uncomfortable with the request and ended the call, the site reported.
Azari said the report was not accurate and that “nobody working on Eric’s behalf has approached any witness mentioning a subpoena.”
Swalwell has not been charged or sued on the “false allegations,” she noted, and therefore has no subpoena power.
Azari, who took to the airwaves on Swalwell’s behalf declaring “regret is not rape,” has been paid at least $40,000 by Swalwell’s defunct campaign for governor.
The payment was revealed in a new trove of campaign filings through April 18. Swalwell ended his campaign for governor April 12 after being accused of raping an ex-staffer after a 2024 charity event in New York while she was intoxicated, and sexually harassing multiple other women.
A campaign and election law attorney, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told The Post that any campaign spending on private investigators should be disclosed.
“You can’t hide controversial expenses by running them through somebody else,” the attorney said. “If the private investigator was paid by the law firm [Swalwell hired], then that PI needs to show up on the report.”
The ex-staffer who accused Swalwell of rape is cooperating with the Manhattan District Attorney,
Another woman, Lonna Drews, claimed Swalwell drugged and raped her at a Los Angeles hotel in 2018.
The ex-staffer who accused Swalwell of raping her after the New York charity gala is cooperating with the Manhattan DA In its investigation of the disgraced pol, CNN reported.
The woman, who has not been named, alleged Swalwell sexually assaulted her while she was too intoxicated to consent and also had nonconsensual sexual contact with her in 2019 when she was a junior staffer in his office.
Swalwell has vehemently denied the allegations against him, though he alluded to “mistakes.”
“These allegations of sexual assault are flat false,” the doomed California governor candidate said in a social media video posted April 10. “They are absolutely false. They did not happen.”
The election attorney source noted that California law bars candidates from paying campaign funds to pay a settlement or penalty related to a claim of sexual assault or sexual harassment.
“And if you use your campaign funds for sexual harassment and you end up being found guilty or liable, then you have to repay them,” the attorney said.
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