2 Swalwell accusers discuss his downfall and the fear of coming forward

Two women who have accused Rep. Eric Swalwell of misconduct told CBS News that, while they feel “vindicated” now that he has dropped his bid to become California’s next governor and will resign from his seat in Congress, there is still work to be done.

“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,” Ally Sammarco, whose accusations were first detailed in a CNN report, told CBS News. “But I also felt very vindicated that he realized it was over for him.”

Annika Albrecht, who is publicly coming forward as an accuser for the first time, said, “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.”

Swalwell’s political ambitions have unraveled in recent days as he’s been accused by multiple women of sexual misconduct, including allegations of sexual assault and sending unsolicited explicit messages and nude photos. The Democratic congressman announced Monday that he will be resigning from Congress, one day after he said he was dropping out of the California gubernatorial race.

Swalwell has vowed to fight what he called the “false allegations” and has claimed they were politically motivated to hurt his gubernatorial bid.

Albrecht and Sammarco vehemently deny any accusations they were part of a coordinated campaign from a rival candidate or party. 

“We didn’t know each other before. I didn’t know any of the other women,” Sammarco said. “I knew nothing about them. We got connected through this process, and I’m so glad we did.”

That process started about two weeks ago, when Albrecht says she contacted Cheyenne Hunt, an influencer and friend of many years, asking her to share a video with her story about Swalwell. She said she felt compelled to do so because she felt “physically sick and nauseous” at the idea of Swalwell becoming governor of California.

“Eleven days is how long it took from when I reached out to [Cheyenne] to make the video to when the dam broke and all the articles were published,” Albrecht said, calling them “the longest 11 days of our lives.”

Hunt told CBS News that after posting the video, she was “immediately slammed” with messages from other women accusing Swalwell of inappropriate behavior, and she was on the phone with some of them within two hours. 

Hunt said one of the women described a “full-on assault. That was when I realized this was a lot bigger than any of us knew,” and was a “different level of severity.”

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office confirmed to CBS News on Sunday that it is investigating allegations against Swalwell after the San Francisco Chronicle published a story detailing an unnamed former staffer’s accusations of sexual assault in California and in New York. Swalwell denied it and threatened to take legal action against the woman.

Hunt told CBS News the alleged  assault she was told about is separate from the one being investigated by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.

“He thought he was untouchable. He acted with total impunity. He never thought that the consequences of his actions would follow him,” Sammarco said.

“I think we just prevented another 30 to 40 years, potentially, of him harming people if he were to stay in Congress,” she said. 

“As governor, he would have had even more power and more authority. And he would have felt vindicated too, you know, that he could run for higher office,” she added. ” He ran for president and nothing came out about him. So I think that empowered him to continue doing what he was doing.”

Both Albrecht and Sammarco told CBS News they had had similar interactions with Swalwell.

Sammarco said she met Swalwell in 2021, when she was 24 and working in an entry level role on a political campaign for former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe. 

She said she messaged Swalwell on Twitter because they had similar upbringings – both grew up in homes with Republican parents. She figured he wouldn’t even see her message, but says he responded “fairly quickly” and the two continued messaging each other over the next day before moving to text messages, which CBS News has reviewed. 

Hunt told CBS News that after posting the video, she was “immediately slammed” with messages from other women accusing Swalwell of inappropriate behavior, and she was on the phone with some of them within two hours. 

In the messages, he said he wanted to help her further her career in politics, and the two kept in touch. “I felt like a million bucks” she said, adding, “I was thrilled, and I was flattered.”

Sammarco said Swalwell eventually began to send her messages that “I thought had a weird connotation to them,” but she said she “trusted that he was an established figure who wouldn’t put his credibility on the line.” 

Eventually, he asked her to communicate via Snapchat, a messaging app that deletes messages after they’re sent. She said she thought it was unusual for a man in his 40s who was married and had children to be using such an app, but she was afraid of possibly losing such an important professional connection.

She said the messages again started out professional and platonic but then slowly became more explicit. 

“He was sending me photos of his face….he was drinking in a lot of them. He would ask me if I was drinking too or tell me I should have a drink with him,” she said. Sammarco said he never directly asked her to send him any explicit pictures of her, but that one night he sent her a photo of his penis.

“I was shocked,” she said.