Former California congressman Eric Swalwell has quietly spent more than $313,000 in campaign funds on legal representation as he continues battling mounting sexual misconduct allegations that forced him out of public office earlier this year.
According to newly filed campaign finance disclosures, Swalwell’s political committee paid prominent attorney Sara Azari and her New York-based law firm two major payments between April 19 and May 16 totaling more than $273,000.
The filings reportedly list the payments as covering “campaign legal compliance.”
The newest payments included one transaction for $250,000 and another for $23,251.
Those figures came on top of an earlier $40,000 payment Swalwell had already made to Azari as she publicly defended him against the growing scandal.
The revelations add another dramatic chapter to the downfall of the once high-profile Democrat, who resigned from Congress and abandoned his gubernatorial campaign after multiple accusations of sexual misconduct surfaced earlier this year.
Swalwell has remained largely out of public view since stepping away from office.
Despite dropping out of the California governor’s race, his name is still expected to appear on the June 2 primary ballot, serving as a lingering reminder of what became one of the Democratic Party’s biggest political scandals of the year.
Azari, who frequently appears as a legal analyst on television, has aggressively defended Swalwell in recent media appearances.
She previously argued during an interview on NewsNation that regret after consensual encounters does not constitute sexual assault.
“The fact that, you know, a day later, years later, or whatnot, you maybe had shame around what you did, or maybe you were in a relationship and shouldn’t have done what you did, doesn’t make it rape,” Azari said during the interview.
Azari’s law firm publicly states that it specializes in handling allegations of sexual misconduct in what it describes as the “post-#MeToo landscape.”
Swalwell himself has denied wrongdoing.
His last major public comments on the controversy came April 10, when he released a video statement rejecting the allegations against him.
Still, the scandal appears to be taking a growing toll on both his political career and personal life.
Recent reports noted that Swalwell’s wife, Brittany, was spotted without her wedding ring near the couple’s $1.2 million Washington, DC-area home, fueling additional speculation surrounding the state of the former congressman’s marriage.
The controversy marks a stunning collapse for Swalwell, who had once been considered one of the Democratic Party’s most visible younger lawmakers and briefly ran for president during the 2020 election cycle.
He became nationally known for his aggressive anti-Trump rhetoric and frequent appearances on cable news programs defending Democratic investigations into President Donald Trump, as the New York Post reported.
Swalwell also faced years of scrutiny over his previous ties to suspected Chinese intelligence operative Fang Fang, though no criminal wrongdoing was ever alleged in that matter.
Now, however, the sexual misconduct allegations and massive legal spending disclosures have further deepened the political damage surrounding the former congressman as Democrats attempt to distance themselves from the growing scandal.
