Swalwell’s Cash Trail Gets Messy

Adriana Stone 0 1 min read

Swalwell’s Cash Trail Gets Messy

Eric Swalwell is facing a new round of scrutiny, and this one is all about the money. Campaign filings show his gubernatorial campaign paid $40,000 to Sara Azari, a criminal defense attorney representing him in connection with sexual misconduct allegations. Azari is described as a lawyer who specializes in cases where “liberty, livelihood, and reputation are at stake.”

The paperwork also shows about $22,549 in payments for babysitters and childcare. Those payments were made in 12 transactions to his longtime nanny, Amanda Barbosa, between January 1 and April 18. Campaign cash can be used for some personal support costs in limited situations, but numbers like that always raise eyebrows.

The larger issue is the investigation hanging over Swalwell. A former congressional aide accused him of sexual assault after a political event in 2024 and also claimed he raped her in 2019. The Manhattan district attorney’s office opened an investigation on April 11. Swalwell suspended his gubernatorial campaign the same day, then resigned from Congress on April 14.

Before stepping down, Azari said Swalwell “categorically” denied the assault and harassment allegations, calling them a “calculated and transparent political hit job.” She also said he would “pursue every available legal remedy” against his accusers.

That is a lot of legal trouble for any politician. It is also the kind of story that forces voters to ask hard questions about judgment, spending, and what gets passed off as campaign business. When campaign money starts flowing to lawyers and childcare, people notice.

And the timing matters. Swalwell was once the frontrunner in the governor’s race. Now he is out of the contest, out of Congress, and dealing with a public paper trail that keeps getting harder to defend. The filings are still there. The questions are still there too.

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