Scrambled

Did Oppo Researchers Drive Eric Swalwell from the Race for California Governor?

On Friday, April 10, 2026, the San Francisco Chronicle went live with a blockbuster story by Alexei Koseff and Sophia Bollag, with the headline: EX-STAFFER SAYS ERIC SWALWELL, CANDIDATE FOR CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR, SEXUALLY ASSAULTED HER.

A woman, whose identity the outlet did not reveal, said she had “sexual encounters” with Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) while working in his Capitol Hill office. She also “alleged he twice sexually assaulted her when she was too intoxicated to consent.”

A few hours later, CNN aired a story in which the same woman said Swalwell “raped her when she was heavily intoxicated and left her bruised and bleeding.” Three more women came forward and “alleged various kinds of sexual misconduct by the Democratic congressman,” CNN reported, “including Swalwell sending them unsolicited explicit messages or nude photos.”

On Sunday evening, about an hour after Rory McIlroy won his second Green Jacket, Eric Swalwell suspended his campaign to succeed Gavin Newsom as Governor of California, scrambling the race just a few weeks before ballots begin arriving in mailboxes from San Diego to Eureka.

When Swalwell’s campaign went up in smoke, the debate among California politicos shifted from “Can he survive this?” to “Whose fingerprints are on the murder weapon?”

Right away, some began pointing at a convenient target: opposition researchers.

“In recent weeks,” the Chronicle reported, “political influencers and other social media accounts have alleged sexual misconduct by Swalwell.” A woman reached out to the news outlet in February:

When rumors about Swalwell’s conduct began circulating online, the woman said she was confused because she had told only a small circle of family and close friends about what had happened to her. She said she was “petrified” that Swalwell had told people about their encounters or that her name had appeared in an opposition research file compiled by a rival campaign.

The most likely suspect would appear to be the well-funded campaign of billionaire Tom Steyer. As the Chronicle and CNN reports went viral, Steyer was on the air with an ad whacking Swalwell for missing votes in the House of Representatives. You can watch the ad here:

But others suggest another Swalwell rival, former Rep. Katie Porter, was somehow involved in placing the story.

An influencer named Cheyenne Hunt was raising questions about Swalwell ahead of the Chronicle and CNN reports. Hunt and Porter overlap somewhat: Hunt got her law degree from UC Irvine, where Porter is a professor; when Hunt graduated from law school, Porter was the commencement speaker; and Hunt was an intern in the U.S. Senate while Porter was still a member of the House of Representatives.

A spokesman for Porter said the two women "don't have a relationship to speak of," which is not quite the same thing as saying Porter had nothing to do with Hunt’s online commentary in the days and weeks leading up to the worst Friday in Eric Swalwell’s personal or professional life.

This newsletter doubts either campaign pushed this particular snowball down the hill.

The reporters who broke the Swalwell story have, shall we say, a rather impressive record as investigative journalists.

Alexei Koseff was the first to report Governor Gavin Newsom dined at the swanky French Laundry restaurant during the height of the COVID lockdowns. Sophia Bollag revealed that federal investigators intercepted communications among top Newsom administration officials, as part of a corruption probe into his former chief of staff.

If Steyer or Porter (or someone else) played a role in getting these four women to come forward on a single day, it will eventually come out. But that could take awhile. Several years passed before reporters confirmed then-Senator Kamala Harris circulated opposition research on her rivals for the vice presidential nod in 2020.

Oppo in the Oval?

Another oppo research angle in the Swalwell mess is worth exploring. From New York Times reporter Laurel Rosenhall:

Some potential supporters in California said that they had heard that Mr. Swalwell had a reputation for hitting on young women. But when they asked him about it during endorsement interviews, he blew it off purely as rumor. He told groups that Mr. Trump’s opposition researchers had been trying to find dirt on him for a decade and that the lack of any evidence showed that the gossip was untrue, according to two people familiar with the interviews.

Swalwell’s spin: Because Trump’s well-trained army of oppo researchers has come up with nothing of interest, rest assured I’m squeaky-clean.

As readers of this newsletter (and listeners of the Oppo File podcast) are aware, Trump’s opposition researchers have historically had more in common with the hapless Keystone Cops than the Screaming Eagles. For example:

• In June 2016, no one with “Research” in his title appeared to have been present at the infamous Trump Tower meeting at which Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort and Donald Trump Jr. expected to receive some oppo research on Hillary Clinton from a Russian lawyer named Natalia Veselnitskaya. Trump later described the meeting as a “wasted 20 minutes.” For more about this meeting, check out this bonus episode of the Oppo File podcast.

• In the closing days of the 2020 presidential campaign, Rudy Giuliani spectacularly mishandled the Hunter Biden laptop.

• And during Trump’s first term, Senator Harris was among the most aggressive questioners of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh during his September 2018 confirmation hearings. The White House was apparently unaware of a December 2016 lawsuit, in which a California Justice Department administrative assistant accused one of then-Attorney General Harris’ top aides of “gender harassment” and other “demeaning behavior, including frequently asking her to crawl under his desk to change the paper in his printer.”

(Note the byline in the Sacramento Bee report: Alexei Koseff, one of the two reporters who broke the Swalwell story last Friday.)

Were Trump surrogates poking about Swalwell’s personal life and professional record?

It’s possible.

Did the lack of any bombshell disclosures indicate Swalwell had been thoroughly vetted by operatives skilled in the “dark art” of opposition research?

We learned the answer last Friday.