Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she had no idea Eric Swalwell was an alleged sex offender and claimed she was surprised by the rape accusations.
Few in Washington seem to believe her.
In fact, critics argue Pelosi’s 86-year-old fingerprints can be found all over the career of the disgraced Swalwell. For years, she mentored him during his rise inside the Democratic Party, and Pelosi actively shielded Swalwell from a previous sex scandal.
When journalist Frank Sesno directly asked Pelosi this week whether she knew about Swalwell’s numerous alleged sexual assaults, she quickly distanced herself from her longtime protege.
“No. That’s not true,” Pelosi said. “That is absolutely positive — and it is true that they may say that, but it is absolutely not true.”
Asked a second time about her personal knowledge of the alleged sex crimes, Pelosi doubled down.
“None whatsoever. None whatsoever. I had none whatsoever,” she said.
Pelosi called Swalwell’s resignation a “smart decision” and “the right thing to do,” but again dodged when asked whether she had personally forced him to step down.
“Oh, I think that was his decision,” she said.
Critics say otherwise. Conservative law professor Jonathan Turley wrote in a Fox News column that Swalwell “spent his entire career protected by an enabling establishment and liberal media machine” — and that Pelosi and her allies knew exactly who they were protecting.
“He was never much of a legislator,” Turley wrote. “His value was his vicious instincts.”
Turley said Pelosi has saved Swalwell’s career once before — when he was caught having a sexual relationship with Christine Fang, an alleged Chinese spy. At the time, Pelosi publicly declared she had no concern about him, allowing the media to drop the story.
She also insisted Swalwell remain on the powerful House Intelligence Committee over objections from critics who called him a security risk.
“The abandonment of Swalwell is a familiar move of political triage,” Turley wrote. “By letting Swalwell succumb to the scandal, Pelosi and others hope to protect the Democratic establishment from any blowback after years of enabling his career.”
California Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton was more direct and told Breitbart that Swalwell’s sexual assault allegations were an open secret in party circles for months.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has opened an investigation into the sexual assault allegations against Swalwell tied to a 2024 incident in New York.
FBI Director Kash Patel has ordered a review of all FBI files on Swalwell’s ties to Christine Fang.
New York and California both have no statutes of limitations for rape and sexual assault — and Swalwell could be looking at serious jail time.