House could move to expel Eric Swalwell over sexual assault allegations

A new push to expel Representative Eric Swalwell has turned a criminal allegation into a test of how far House discipline can go before it becomes a precedent. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, Republican of Florida, said she would file a motion tied to sexual assault allegations against the California Democrat, while the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office confirmed it is investigating the claims.

The constitutional hurdle is steep. Article I, Section 5, Clause 2 gives each chamber the power to expel a member, but only with the concurrence of two-thirds of those present and voting. That is a much higher bar than censure, which is a formal rebuke rather than removal. In practice, expulsion usually requires more than partisan outrage; it requires enough members from both parties to decide the evidence is serious enough to warrant removing an elected official from the House floor.

That standard has kept expulsions rare. The House History office lists only a handful of cases: three members removed in 1861 for joining the Confederacy, Michael J. Myers on Oct. 2, 1980, after a bribery conviction, James A. Traficant on July 24, 2002, after criminal convictions, and George Santos on Dec. 1, 2023. In the Santos case, the House passed the expulsion resolution 311-114, with 2 voting present, a margin that showed how much bipartisan support is usually needed to clear the two-thirds threshold.

That history matters for Swalwell because it shows the House is effectively setting a criminal-justice standard, not just a political one. If leaders press ahead on allegations alone, without a conviction or a detailed ethics record, they would be signaling that internal discipline can move faster than the courts and that a prosecutor’s active investigation may be enough to trigger removal proceedings. If the effort stalls, it would reinforce the idea that expulsion remains reserved for the rarest cases.

The political chain reaction could widen quickly. If Luna files the motion, other members could use the same playbook against lawmakers from either party, especially in a House already accustomed to tit-for-tat fights over committee seats and floor discipline. That would put pressure on leadership to decide whether to refer the matter to the House Committee on Ethics, force a resignation, or let a privileged resolution move directly. For voters, the key question is whether members are applying one standard to all sides or using expulsion as another weapon in a chamber where committee power and institutional norms are already under strain.