00:00The alleged victims of disgraced and soon-to-be former Congressman Eric Swalwell are speaking out.
00:05First, there was a fresh allegation from a fashion executive and model named Lana Drews.
00:10She said she met Swalwell socially on two occasions before she claims he drugged and
00:14raped her during their third meeting. She held a press conference detailing what she says happened.
00:19He raped me
00:23and he choked me
00:27and while he was choking me, I lost consciousness
00:32and I thought I died. I did not consent to any sexual activity.
00:40Another accuser, Annika Albrecht, told CBS News that the married congressman once allegedly tried
00:44to lure her to a hotel room after sending her pervy messages on Snapchat. She says she constantly
00:50thinks about how she dodged a bullet and that the close call left her shaken to her core.
00:55Meanwhile, the alleged victim who started this cascade of accusations by saying that Swalwell
01:00sexually assaulted her in a hotel room in New York City in 2024 offered more details, telling CNN,
01:06quote, I was pushing him off of me saying no, he didn't stop. Swalwell, who announced his
01:12resignation from Congress earlier this week, will officially be an ex-congressman on Friday,
01:17but he won't be leaving government without a parting gift at your expense and mine,
01:23his congressional pension. The Post's politics reporter Ryan King explained why Swalwell and
01:28his congressional colleague, Representative Tony Gonzalez, who also resigned this week amid a
01:34sexual misconduct scandal, will still get perks even after resigning in disgrace. Perks like
01:40taxpayer-funded checks and even a congressional gym membership.
01:43Eric Swalwell and Tony Gonzalez are still eligible for congressional perks despite resigning from
01:50Congress in disgrace. We saw this with George Santos when he was expelled from Congress in late 2023.
01:58Santos still retained access to the House floor. He showed up to a State of the Union address and we
02:06saw him
02:06every now and then appear at the Capitol talking with reporters and walking to the House floor and there were
02:15a lot of
02:15lawmakers in Congress that weren't happy about that. In the case of Eric Swalwell, he'll get to retain a pension
02:23because
02:23he served five years. So nothing about his resignation precludes him from getting that. And both him and Tony
02:31Gonzalez will still have access to the House floor for big events just like Santos did after being
02:38expelled. And there are lawmakers that are not happy about that that are talking about considering ways to
02:46strip some of the benefits that they will still receive despite the circumstances in which they resigned in
02:55disgrace for alleged sexual misconduct. So I think that this is something we're going to hear a little bit
03:02about in the future as kind of lawmakers decide what to do. The House just gobbled back into session on
03:10Tuesday, just days after news of the accusations against Eric Swalwell broke. So Congress is still kind of
03:19grappling with what to do here.
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