Another woman accuses Swalwell of drugging and raping her in 2018

Another woman has alleged that Eric Swalwell drugged and raped her in a hotel room in 2018, adding to multiple accusations of misconduct made against the lawmaker by several women, including a former staff member.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Lonna Drewes said she had been hesitant to come forward earlier with the allegation because of Swalwell's "political power".

Swalwell said he would resign from Congress and has also dropped out of the California governor's race. He has denied the sexual abuse claim made by his former staff member.

"I will fight the serious, false allegation made against me," he said. "However, I must take responsibility and ownership for the mistakes I did make."

In a statement, Democratic lawmaker Swalwell said he was "deeply sorry to my family, staff, and constituents for mistakes in judgement I've made in my past".

The BBC has contacted Swalwell for comment on the new accusations.

Speaking at a news conference on Tuesday, Drewes' attorney, Lisa Bloom, called Swalwell's statement apologising to his wife but denying the sexual assault allegation "blather and spin".

Drewes told reporters that she met Swalwell in 2018 while she was working as a model in Beverly Hills, California. She said Swalwell's wife was pregnant at the time, and that she then considered the congressman her friend.

She said that the third time she saw him, she believed Swalwell drugged her drink because she only had one glass of wine and found herself unable to move her body.

Drewes said Swalwell told her he needed to go back to his hotel room for something he forgot, where she alleged he raped and choked her.

"While he was choking me I lost consciousness and I thought I died," she said. "I did not consent to any sexual activity."

Drewes said she did not undergo a sexual assault exam at the time, but told her close friends about the incident.

Bloom, her attorney said she planned to file a police report with the Los Angeles Police Department on the alleged assault.

The attorney said three other women have contacted her about allegations against Swalwell.

Last week, four women accused the congressman of misconduct ranging from sexual harassment to rape.

As a result, Congress opened an ethics inquiry, and lawmakers were considering expelling the congressman, who was elected to the House of Representatives in 2012.

Two other women who accused Swalwell of sending unwanted explicit photos also spoke to the BBC's US partner CBS News this week, saying they were grateful he was facing consequences now and leaving Congress after acting with impunity for years.

Annika Albrecht and Ally Sammarco, the accusers, told the outlet they felt vindicated. But Albrecht said there is more to be done.

"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," she said.

Sammarco told CNN last week that Swalwell sent her unsolicited nude messages over Snapchat, an app that deletes messages after they're sent. She said the two met after she messaged him over Twitter when she was 24 to discuss careers in politics.

"He was pushed into a corner, essentially, because they were planning to expel him … so I think he [resigned] to save face a little," Sammarco told CBS News. "But I also felt very vindicated that he realized it was over for him."

Albrecht told CBS she met Swalwell while on a class trip in college and that he began talking to her "under the guise of professional mentorship".

She said he later also sent her "sexually inappropriate" messages on Snapchat and invited her to a hotel room.

Sammarco alleged Swalwell "acted with total impunity". "He never thought that the consequences of his actions would follow him," she told CBS.

The two accusers were interviewed alongside Cheyenne Hunt, a Democratic influencer who posted a video describing several women's accusations against Swalwell, bringing the issue to the public's attention.

Hunt told CBS that more than 30 women had contacted her alleging some type of misconduct from Swalwell since she posted her first video on the issue.

The Manhattan District Attorney's Office is also investigating Swalwell over allegations from an unnamed former staff member in a San Francisco Chronicle story, which recounted accusations of sexual assault against the former congressman in California and New York.

The woman in the newspaper article said she woke up naked in his hotel bed in 2019 with fuzzy memories of the night before after going out for drinks with him.

Swalwell has denied the accusation.

Congress is returning from recess on Tuesday, with the ethics committee planning to take up inquiries into both Swalwell and Texas Republican Tony Gonzales, who had dropped his re-election bid after admitting having an affair with an aide.

On Tuesday, Republcian Representative Anna Paulina Luna said she was turning over information to the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Swalwell.

"I am going to be heading over to the FBI because it is my understanding that they are asking Mr. Swalwell to come in to talk to them," she told CNN.