Speaker 1: Hey, folks, it is Tuesday, April fourteenth, and as we
Speaker 1: record this, a woman in Los Angeles is on her
Speaker 1: way to the police department to report the Congressman Eric
Speaker 1: Swolwell drugged, choked and raped her. And with that, welcome
Speaker 1: to this episode of Amy and TJ. This would be
Speaker 1: the fifth accuser and the second woman, Robes, to come
Speaker 1: forward and share a story. Accusation of this is not
Speaker 1: just inappropriate behavior. This is now two accusations of a
Speaker 1: horrible criminal Actcrobes.
Speaker 2: Yes, this isn't sexual harassment, This isn't sexual abuse. This was,
Speaker 2: as she described it, a violent rape that involved drugging
Speaker 2: and you mentioned choking. She actually sat in front of
Speaker 2: cameras with microphones in her face and said after she
Speaker 2: went through this, she says she didn't want to live.
Speaker 2: This was a powerful emotional account of what she claims
Speaker 2: happened in twenty eighteen.
Speaker 1: And we should tell you all now we are hopping on.
Speaker 1: She just wrapped the press conference. We knew this press
Speaker 1: conference was happening. We were told that there would be
Speaker 1: some new details. We were not expecting this. And key here,
Speaker 1: Robes key, is that the first accuser came out. Sure,
Speaker 1: maybe people are putting it together. But she did an
Speaker 1: interview in which she did not show her face, that
Speaker 1: she was blacked out. She hasn't given her name. This
Speaker 1: woman sat in front of a room full of cameras,
Speaker 1: her name is Lana Dreuze, and put her name and
Speaker 1: face on it and told her story. Robes, this is
Speaker 1: not the other. The other. Look, we have to believe
Speaker 1: a woman when she comes forward like this, but talk
Speaker 1: of alcohol and really getting wasted and didn't remember one
Speaker 1: night and then the other that were flashes. This is
Speaker 1: not the case at all with this woman's story.
Speaker 2: I have to tell you, just listening to her tell
Speaker 2: her story, you could hear a pin drop and I
Speaker 2: had chills from head to toe multiple times listening to
Speaker 2: her recount this. And I just have to say just
Speaker 2: in terms of my impressions, and everyone can have their impression.
Speaker 2: And of course this is her version events. This is
Speaker 2: all alleged. He of course denies any wrongdoing, denies so
Speaker 2: far any of the accounts and certainly any criminal accounts
Speaker 2: that have been made that would describe behavior that could
Speaker 2: be yes punishable by police. So he's denied everything. However,
Speaker 2: listening to her tell her story Damn. She was very believable.
Speaker 2: She was composed, she was emotional, but in a very
Speaker 2: genuine way. I thought listening to her, I felt for
Speaker 2: her and I believed her.
Speaker 1: Frankly, she felt brave. She felt brave sitting there and
Speaker 1: hearing part of her story robes and I know it
Speaker 1: was a part that you jumped on the most, and
Speaker 1: you were like, I feel her. There is that the
Speaker 1: reason she hasn't come forward in all this time and
Speaker 1: we're talking about it's been eight years. She lived in fear,
Speaker 1: and she was in circles that were influential and didn't
Speaker 1: want to rock the boat. And when you were listening
Speaker 1: to her, you were like, Yep, that reads Yep, that
Speaker 1: makes sense, Yep, I get it.
Speaker 3: Yes, because here is a woman.
Speaker 2: She was a model in Beverly Hills, but she also
Speaker 2: owned a fashion software company, and she was hoping to
Speaker 2: get connected to folks in Silicon Valley. She describes Congressman
Speaker 2: Eric swall Well as a friend and someone who said, hey,
Speaker 2: I can hook you up. I've got connections. Let's have
Speaker 2: some meetings. So she had a couple of meetings with him.
Speaker 2: This was another meeting and she said, I knew he
Speaker 2: was married. I knew his wife was pregnant. So she
Speaker 2: went into this not feeling threatened or feeling like maybe
Speaker 2: something else was going on. She felt like this was
Speaker 2: a legit business friendship that could actually serve her well
Speaker 2: in her in her professional career. And when she talked
Speaker 2: about why she didn't tell, she did tell friends. She
Speaker 2: did say this, and she didn't document it in several ways. Personally,
Speaker 2: she went to a therapist for years, but she didn't
Speaker 2: want to go to police, and she didn't want to
Speaker 2: say anything publicly out of fear that her she wouldn't
Speaker 2: be believed that he was a powerful political figure who
Speaker 2: had She said, his family has ties to law enforcement.
Speaker 2: He's a big deal in this area. And to go
Speaker 2: up against him and to say something happened and then
Speaker 2: to be pitted against him, she said he said.
Speaker 3: She just she felt too afraid to come forward.
Speaker 1: Her delay was driven by fear, not doubt is how
Speaker 1: she placed it. But her name is Lana Drews. She was,
Speaker 1: as you mentioned, robes, working as a model at this
Speaker 1: company out there now her press conference, and I wanted
Speaker 1: to make sure we said this exactly how she said
Speaker 1: it quote. I believed he drugged my drink. Now, she
Speaker 1: goes on to tip this story of Robe. She says,
Speaker 1: she met him and they were together socially on three occasions.
Speaker 1: She offered to help him, excuse me, he offered to
Speaker 1: help her out. But the third occasion, let's move to
Speaker 1: that one rose and she starts to describe they were
Speaker 1: supposed to go to an event together again twenty eighteen.
Speaker 1: Is supposed to go to some event, but he says
Speaker 1: he needs to go back up to his room.
Speaker 2: Correct, And she said, beforehand they had she had one
Speaker 2: glass of wine. One one glass of wine. And she said, look,
Speaker 2: she was considering running for city council. She had an
Speaker 2: interest in politics, So yes, she was going to a
Speaker 2: public event with him, so she knows she only had
Speaker 2: one glass of wine. He said, according to her, oops,
Speaker 2: I got to run up to my hotel room to
Speaker 2: retrieve some paperwork.
Speaker 3: She said.
Speaker 2: By the time she walked into his room, she couldn't
Speaker 2: move her arms. She started to feel the effects of
Speaker 2: what she believes was a drug that she believes he
Speaker 2: put in her drink.
Speaker 1: What she described as not somebody had just had one
Speaker 1: glass of wine. I don't care how much of a lightweight,
Speaker 1: what she described sounds fishy. Now robes before we continue
Speaker 1: with her story. The reason this stands out so much
Speaker 1: because we couldn't understand why the other accuser said he
Speaker 1: also raped her. Couldn't remember whole parts of the night,
Speaker 1: couldn't remember going from the bar to the hottel, couldn't
Speaker 1: remember anything in between. Now robes that, well, folks have
Speaker 1: been blackout drunk before. You happen to be blackout drunk
Speaker 1: on the two times and can't remember anything the two
Speaker 1: times you met up with this congressman. Robes that might
Speaker 1: lend itself a little more to that story. And what
Speaker 1: could have could have She's not alleging, right.
Speaker 3: She doesn't know.
Speaker 2: She doesn't even know enough to allege, and she knows
Speaker 2: she was drinking, So I actually give her credit. She
Speaker 2: wasn't trying to say I only had one and I
Speaker 2: don't know how she was like I was heavily drinking.
Speaker 2: But you are correct. When I was listening to Anna
Speaker 2: Drew's tell her story, I immediately went to the former
Speaker 2: staffer and thought, I wonder if she even considered that
Speaker 2: maybe something was put in one of those ris to
Speaker 2: make her literally remember nothing.
Speaker 1: That was how back to Lana. Yeah, I just would
Speaker 1: insert that in there. But yeah, she says she has
Speaker 1: the one drink goes upstairs. Can't move a body, she said.
Speaker 3: You couldn't move her arms, She couldn't move her body.
Speaker 2: But she knew what was going on, and she said
Speaker 2: he raped her and he choked her so much that
Speaker 2: she says she actually lost consciousness. She said she thought
Speaker 2: she was dying. Yeah, she used that phrase. I thought
Speaker 2: I was dying.
Speaker 1: Now I didn't hear. They didn't go into details. I
Speaker 1: think robes about the aftermath, what happened immediately after, How
Speaker 1: does she get away from her, how does she get home?
Speaker 1: Whatever happened. They didn't give those details, and they didn't
Speaker 1: give all details. She did let us know that at
Speaker 1: the time she did not do a rape, kip, but robe.
Speaker 1: She did plenty of other things that will be seen
Speaker 1: as if even if not evidence, it'll certainly lend to
Speaker 1: her credibility.
Speaker 2: Oh, this is something that police look for when they
Speaker 2: are putting together a criminal investigation and get ready to
Speaker 2: make charges. Did she tell people close to her at
Speaker 2: the time she claims it happened.
Speaker 3: The answer is yes. She also says she logged it.
Speaker 2: In her handwritten calendar that this happened on this date.
Speaker 2: And then she also documented the assault during multiple therapy sessions.
Speaker 3: At a sexual assault center.
Speaker 1: Ha, that's a if they got those records.
Speaker 2: And the fact if she did all of this in
Speaker 2: twenty eighteen and said nothing publicly, it absolutely corroborates or
Speaker 2: at least makes it so much more believable that she
Speaker 2: didn't go forward because she was afraid. She was afraid
Speaker 2: of being put in that position of being forced to
Speaker 2: perhaps even maybe lose her business or lose clients, or
Speaker 2: just becoming that woman no one wants to be. No
Speaker 2: woman wants to be that woman who's pointing the finger
Speaker 2: at a powerful man.
Speaker 3: It's a scary, scary endeavor.
Speaker 2: But the fact that she did all of those things
Speaker 2: to try and heal herself speaks to me to her credibility.
Speaker 1: And again, this is in twenty eighteen is when this
Speaker 1: happened into a robe. Since then, there have been plenty
Speaker 1: of other times that she was after him, times when
Speaker 1: his profile was higher. There were times she could have
Speaker 1: hurt him if she wanted to hurt him. There were
Speaker 1: times she could have blackmailed him if she wanted to
Speaker 1: blackmail him. In some way, form or fashion. If she
Speaker 1: wanted to favor even from him, she had plenty of
Speaker 1: chances to do so, Robes, and she's just that lends
Speaker 1: greatly to credibility.
Speaker 2: Yes, again, watching her, listening to her description of what happened,
Speaker 2: hearing how she acted in the aftermath of everything, it
Speaker 2: all seemed very credible.
Speaker 3: And it is.
Speaker 2: Of note because she felt safe, she felt empowered, She
Speaker 2: felt like she would be believed now and that makes
Speaker 2: a lot of sense too, because other women have come
Speaker 2: forward and there.
Speaker 1: Might be more. We will explain what her attorney said
Speaker 1: in this press conference. That will have Eric Swallwell certainly concerned,
Speaker 1: but it'll raise more eyebrows about just how many women
Speaker 1: potential victims there are out there. Stare all right? We
Speaker 1: continue here on Amy and TJ. Robes are just mentioned.
Speaker 1: You said she has come forward now, and she's come
Speaker 1: forward because other women came forward. Well, now that she's
Speaker 1: come forward, shouldn't we expect possibly phones to be ringing
Speaker 1: at a Manhattan DA's office, at the Los Angeles Police
Speaker 1: Department of Beverly Hills, wherever they are Robes this How
Speaker 1: far does this go? Yet?
Speaker 2: Because the timing all is interesting because remember his former staffer,
Speaker 2: who was twenty one at the time, detailed what she
Speaker 2: said was the first time he sexually assaulted her. As
Speaker 2: twenty nineteen, we are hearing from Lana that her incident happened,
Speaker 2: she says, in two thousand eighteen. So this is all
Speaker 2: in the same kind of period of time. And look,
Speaker 2: if this is true, I believe from just the experience
Speaker 2: we've had covering these types of stories, when a person
Speaker 2: acts like this, it oftentimes isn't an outlier. It isn't
Speaker 2: an individual or a singular event. This typically is a sexual.
Speaker 3: Desire and a pattern.
Speaker 2: And so if you've already got now the fifth woman
Speaker 2: coming out and what they describe is so atrocious and violent,
Speaker 2: and if he had been getting away with it year
Speaker 2: after year after year, if this is all true, I
Speaker 2: can't imagine.
Speaker 3: There aren't more women there.
Speaker 2: It seems like there almost certainly are more women roams.
Speaker 1: You said this to me before. In cases maybe not
Speaker 1: a drug, but it's hard to imagine that this was
Speaker 1: the first time he'd done it. If he did it,
Speaker 1: that she was the first or a one off, that
Speaker 1: means it's possibly happened. How many possible times you're telling me,
Speaker 1: a US congressman who actually ran for president and wanted
Speaker 1: to be the governor of California, was out there drugging
Speaker 1: and raping people. Robe. That's geez, Robe. This is an
Speaker 1: unbelievable story, he is. This is not a one off.
Speaker 1: And look, we believe that first victim that first. You
Speaker 1: have to listen to that story, Robes. But there are
Speaker 1: parts of that story you might ask a follow up
Speaker 1: question about. There are parts of that story you might
Speaker 1: question about memories in it. What this lady's story is,
Speaker 1: at least from a press conference unimpeachable, Robes.
Speaker 3: She has a way to put it.
Speaker 1: She's got receipts upon receipts upon receipts, she says. Now
Speaker 1: we haven't seen them yet, but as we sit here,
Speaker 1: she says, she was getting up from that press conference
Speaker 1: and going directly to police.
Speaker 3: That was powerful.
Speaker 2: When she said, I will be making a report to
Speaker 2: law enforcement immediately.
Speaker 3: I could see this could make me emotion.
Speaker 2: I could see the strength coming back to her because
Speaker 2: when she was telling the story, she was vulnerable, she
Speaker 2: was emotional. You could see and feel how powerless she
Speaker 2: felt and she has felt in that moment and all
Speaker 2: of the years that have followed, even telling us that
Speaker 2: she wanted she had suicidal thoughts based on what she
Speaker 2: had experienced because she felt so powerless, helpless, And to
Speaker 2: see her say I will be making a report to
Speaker 2: law enforce it. Immediately, I saw the strength come back
Speaker 2: in her voice, and I felt I just felt a
Speaker 2: bunch of pride rushing up in me, because in this moment,
Speaker 2: when you saw her and you heard her story, and
Speaker 2: you take in the consideration of all the other stories
Speaker 2: that are out there, you start to get an idea
Speaker 2: of what one man who is unchecked with this kind
Speaker 2: of power, the damage that he can cause. Now again
Speaker 2: we need to say it multiple times. Eric Swolwell has
Speaker 2: denied all of these allegations. He has not been charged
Speaker 2: with any crime. But still this is a picture that
Speaker 2: is emerging that is chilling and should be paid very
Speaker 2: close attention to.
Speaker 1: And romees we mentioned we don't know how far this
Speaker 1: will go, but this is beyond messages and unwanted right
Speaker 1: misconduct is different from criminal and robes. They are paying
Speaker 1: the picture now of a potential monster. It is just
Speaker 1: hard to understand. And we are rogues that you thought
Speaker 1: it was interesting that when the Manhattan DA put out
Speaker 1: a statement saying they were looking into this. They had
Speaker 1: a call out essentially, there any other victims out there,
Speaker 1: we want to hear from. It had a phone number,
Speaker 1: didn't they attach to it?
Speaker 3: They did for their Special Victims Unit.
Speaker 1: That's one of the last things Lana's attorney did at
Speaker 1: Lisa Bloom said, we want to hear from you, gave
Speaker 1: a website, gave a number. We want to hear not
Speaker 1: just from potential survivors, but also witnesses to anything. So
Speaker 1: not even if you just saw you're aware of something,
Speaker 1: we want to hear. She says she's already heard from
Speaker 1: three women.
Speaker 3: Wow, and that's not shocking, but it's still so sickening
Speaker 3: to hear.
Speaker 1: Just more phone calls are likely being made. Robes, I
Speaker 1: just taught this is a member of Congress rogues. We
Speaker 1: talked about governor of California. He's trying to be he's
Speaker 1: trying to he presided over the impeachment trial. This is
Speaker 1: a high profile, big influential guy that was raping people.
Speaker 3: And you know for years twenty eighteen, by the way,
Speaker 3: it's the year of me too. That actually also is
Speaker 3: shocking to me.
Speaker 2: I would have thought naively so I guess that all
Speaker 2: of these powerful men who may have been behaving badly,
Speaker 2: who had gotten away with it for decades, years, whatever,
Speaker 2: when that reckoning took place, I would have thought that
Speaker 2: even if you're that guy, you might check yourself and think,
Speaker 2: you know what, I'm might actually go down. This is
Speaker 2: not worth it, any sexual fantasy I have or anything
Speaker 2: I'm getting out of doing this isn't worth me losing
Speaker 2: my entire life and livelihood. And yet, if this is
Speaker 2: true the timing, actually this was happening, if it happened.
Speaker 3: In the midst of me too, think about that King.
Speaker 1: Now you tell me maybe some of the other accusers
Speaker 1: about the messages and whatnot. Do you know the years
Speaker 1: the range for those.
Speaker 2: Well, I thought I had seen like twenty twenty one. Yes,
Speaker 2: it seemed as though that the dates we've gotten the
Speaker 2: first one was.
Speaker 1: Twenty eighteen and nineteen, or were we had in nineteen.
Speaker 2: So now we have yeah, that's it, twenty eighteen, and
Speaker 2: then all the way up to twenty twenty four. So
Speaker 2: it seems as though these instances and some of the
Speaker 2: ones from these social influencers. I'm not trying to act
Speaker 2: like it's not a big deal, But they are a
Speaker 2: far cry from what we're hearing from these two women,
Speaker 2: the former staffer and now this former model, Lana drus
Speaker 2: But I do think it's really really significant that she
Speaker 2: did not only put her name to it, but her
Speaker 2: face to it and her own voice to it.
Speaker 1: That was powerful Robes. There might be more fallout, are
Speaker 1: they You're all really gonna somebody's gonna start asking who knew?
Speaker 1: What are you really telling me? Y'all been walking the
Speaker 1: halls with him for the past eight years and nobody
Speaker 1: because stuffs starting is like it was an open secret
Speaker 1: here in DC.
Speaker 2: Don't forget and we haven't validated any of this, but
Speaker 2: there are videos circulating online of people catching him kind
Speaker 2: of bragging about certain kind of behavior or being bored
Speaker 2: with his wife, and so look, it would I would
Speaker 2: imagine other people might have had an idea, but maybe
Speaker 2: they didn't know how significant and violent some of these
Speaker 2: accusations actually are.
Speaker 1: This is a relevant story that a very relevant story
Speaker 1: that seems to be just getting started. Probably it was
Speaker 1: just last Thursday. He was trying to be the governor
Speaker 1: of California.
Speaker 3: He thought he had a pretty damn a good chance
Speaker 3: to rose.
Speaker 1: How could he unbelievable story, but again he is an
Speaker 1: innocent man and to proven otherwise in a court of law.
Speaker 1: We always have to remember. But folks, we appreciate you
Speaker 1: spending some time with us. This was a significant update.
Speaker 1: Just wanting to hop on and let you know what
Speaker 1: was going on. It's always appreciate you spending time with
Speaker 1: us on TJ on behalf of my dear Ammy Robot.
Speaker 1: We will talk to you also