Swalwell furor engulfs others accused of wrongdoing, threatening to upend House

Bipartisan furor over sexual misconduct allegations against Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) is cascading into calls to expel not only him, but three other members — two Republicans and a Democrat — accused of wrongdoing.

The dynamic could upend the House in the coming weeks with forced votes, intense debate, and at least one public House Ethics Committee hearing on the books.

Swalwell ended his gubernatorial bid on Sunday after being accused of sexually assaulting a former aide and other instances of misconduct.

Lawmakers calling for his ouster from Congress immediately also pointed to Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas), who admitted he had an affair with a former congressional staffer who later died after setting herself on fire, and is accused of sending sexually explicit messages to a former campaign aide.

Gonzales’s affair was reported earlier this year, leading to an Ethics Committee referral and the Texas congressman ending his bid for reelection in March. It is against House rules for a member to have a sexual relationship with a member of their staff.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) said over the weekend she will file a motion to expel Swalwell and is inquiring to see if she can pair that with a motion to expel Gonzales. It takes support from two-thirds of the House to expel a member from Congress.

A growing number of Democrats — including Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-N.M.), Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), and Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) — have said they would be in favor of expelling both Swalwell and Gonzales. On the Republican side, Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) said he would vote to expel both.

But the demands for punishing lawmakers accused of wrongdoing aren’t stopping there. Members are also pointing to Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.) and Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.).

Mills — whose former girlfriend obtained a restraining order against him last year for harassment, and whose other simultaneous girlfriend accused him of assault before quickly recanting —  is being investigated by the House Ethics Committee for allegations of dating violence, campaign finance violations and more. 

Meanwhile, an Ethics subcommittee last month found Cherfilus-McCormick had committed 25 Ethics violations related to allegedly using millions in improperly paid federal disaster funds to finance her campaign. She is also being criminally prosecuted in a federal case over the matter.

Mills and Cherfilus-McCormick have both denied wrongdoing.

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) called for votes to expel Swalwell, Gonzales, and Cherfilus-McCormick upon the House’s return this week if they do not resign. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) added in Mills, whom she has targeted in the past.

“Time to clean House. These members have proven through their own actions they are unfit to serve,” Mace said on the social platform X on Sunday.

The uproar could upend Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) control of the House floor — just as he is trying to lasso GOP members in support of reauthorizing foreign spy powers ahead of a quickly approaching deadline and a plan to end the record-long Department of Homeland Security shutdown, and against a Democratic push to prohibit President Trump from unilaterally taking further military action in Iran.

House members are able to act individually to bypass leadership and force action on privileged resolutions to reprimand each other, such as censure and expulsion. Once a member gives notice of such a resolution, the House must act on it within two legislative days.

And while the political realities of a razor-thin House GOP majority have made members hesitate about expelling a single member in the past, expelling all four members or just Swalwell and Gonzales would not change the partisan breakdown, adding to the pro-expulsion momentum.

But there are serious questions about due process that could halt or delay the expulsion pushes. The Ethics Committee is already investigating or taking action against three of the four members: Gonzales, Mills, and Cherfilus-McCormick.

Johnson has long argued in favor of letting the Ethics panel complete its investigations before the chamber takes action to punish members. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) has similarly called for the process to play out when asked about Cherfilus-McCormick.

A resolution brought by Mace to censure Mills and remove him from committees was scuttled in November when the House voted to refer the matter to the House Ethics Committee. 

That is keeping with recent precedent. The House twice batted down attempts to expel fabulist fraudster former Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.), doing so only after the Ethics panel released an investigation into Santos.

Cherfilus-McCormick, though, is just days away from the Ethics panel completing its process. The committee will hold a public hearing to determine what kind of sanctions would be appropriate to take against Cherfilus-McCormick on April 21 — which could be quickly followed by an expulsion vote.

Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.), who has been itching to call up his resolution to expel his Florida colleague since her federal indictment was announced in December, recently told The Hill he is waiting until the Ethics panel completes its full process before calling up his resolution.

There is also the possibility that the House will not have to resort to expulsion because the embattled members opt to resign.

Santos, who noted he is “the only living former member of Congress that was expelled from the institution,” advised the members caught in the controversy to resign from Congress on their own rather than being forced out.

“There is NO dignity in being expelled if I could go back in time I’d do it differently, I’d do it in my own term,” Santos said on X on Sunday.