00:03:14.400I think the dude just might be, you know, I mean, having an affair with his wife.
00:03:19.020But I do think it's fair to say that the Democratic machine intentionally leaked these information and this information, allegations and videos because they needed to force a Democrat out of the race.
00:12:41.080I also want to stress women choosing to get drunk, choosing in that inebriated state to go and be with a guy is not a crime the guy has committed.
00:21:02.540If there's somebody I know who's a friend and they say something abhorrent, well, I think the
00:21:07.140effective thing is to stay friends and bring them in and say, hey, hey, look, like you can't be
00:21:11.760saying these things. You know what I mean? And there's a handful of people that we've hosted.
00:21:15.600I'm not going to do that. Now, this is what's funny. This guy, Stephen Klubak, cuts ties with
00:21:19.740Eric Swalwell. Were you friends with him from the get go? And then he's accused of this wrongdoing.
00:21:25.560Listen, I there's a line, of course. You know, if I knew somebody and they were a friend of mine,
00:21:32.100they did something truly evil or whatever, then fine. If I had a friend who was accused of these
00:21:37.700things and someone asked me to cut ties with them, I'd say, not interested. Listen, there's a court
00:21:42.880of law. You come to me and prove that my friend did something wrong and we can consider what that
00:21:49.280means. However, this is the reason why I say I hate these people is that this guy's friends
00:21:54.700with Swalwell for no reason other than he wants power. That's it. And now that Swalwell is a
00:21:59.960is a risk to him and that he can't get anything from him. He's like, away with you, Swalwell.
00:22:05.440You are now persona non grata. I'm just not interested in living in a world where people
00:22:10.620do this kind of stuff, right? Well, we've got this from Mediaite. CNN legal expert warns
00:22:16.480prosecutors to avoid landmine in Swalwell sexual assault case. All right, breaking overnight,
00:22:23.100California Democrat Eric Swalwell dropped his bid for governor after four women accused him of
00:22:29.040sexual misconduct, including one former staffer who says Swalwell sexually assaulted her after
00:22:34.220a night of heavy drinking. In a video message, the congressman acknowledged making, quote,
00:22:38.400mistakes in judgments, but denied the sexual assault allegations. The Manhattan District
00:22:43.620Attorney's Office said it is investigating after, as the incident was said to have happened in New
00:22:50.020York City. With us now, CNN Senior Legal Analyst, former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern
00:22:54.340District for New York, Ellie Honey. Counselor, good to see you this morning. Talk to me about
00:22:58.620the Manhattan DA's move here. What will they be investigating? How will it work? Why'd they jump
00:23:04.360in? So, John, a case like this is likely to come down to the single issue of consent. Was this
00:23:11.920sexual contact consensual or non-consensual? Now, the first thing prosecutors will do naturally
00:23:16.680is speak to the complainant, the woman, get her full statement, get as much detail as they can.
00:23:22.100Prosecutors also will likely reach out to the accused. Eric Swalwell here, you have to go
00:23:26.900through his defense lawyer. He'll have the opportunity to speak to prosecutors, although,
00:23:31.520of course, he does not have to do that. Then you're in the position of looking for what we
00:23:35.980call corroboration. You want to look at all the other evidence. So, for example,
00:23:39.980what were this woman's statements to others at or around the time? According to the reporting,
00:23:44.980there is evidence that this woman told friends and family members that she had had this contact
00:23:49.660with Representative Swalwell and that it was non-consensual. You want to look at the conversations
00:23:54.160at and after the fact between the complainant and the accused. You want to look and see if
00:23:58.620there's any medical records. The reporting here is that the woman had pregnancy and STD testing.
00:24:04.800So that's something short of a full medical workup. And then, John, the key thing to keep
00:24:08.860in mind is for prosecutors, the question is not who is more believable or which side is more
00:24:14.540likely. Prosecutors, remember, have to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt. So that's
00:24:19.080a very high burden that prosecutors will bear. And again, we said there were four women who
00:24:23.720came forward, including this one here in New York City. What will happen with other potential
00:24:30.520individuals? Yeah, so the allegedly criminal conduct that the DA is investigating relates
00:24:38.360to one of the four women, but prosecutors likely will want to speak to the other three women who
00:24:44.080had other sorts of unwanted advances, photos and texts and exposure from Eric Swalwell. Now,
00:24:49.920Prosecutors have to be careful here, though, because you might be able to offer that evidence if this case ever went to trial as a prosecutor by saying, well, it establishes a pattern.
00:24:59.300However, judges and prosecutors can get in trouble if you bring in too much of this, what we call other bad acts evidence.
00:25:06.440For example, Harvey Weinstein had one of his convictions thrown out because prosecutors introduced and judges admitted too much of that other bad acts evidence.
00:25:15.680So I think if you're a prosecutor, you do want to speak to these three other women.
00:25:19.240But I think you want to be careful with how you use that evidence.
00:25:22.780So the important factor and the reason I bring this up is that Swalwell's facing prison.