FBI Raids Swalwell, Penn State Coke Ring Details, Jennings and Press Secretary Gig: AM Update 8/21

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
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**Emily Jashinsky** (0:23)
Good morning everyone. I'm Emily Jushinski, host of After Party and The Megyn Kelly Wrap Up Show on SiriusXM Channel 111 It's Friday, August 21st, 2026, and this is your AM Update.

**Eli Honig** (0:32)
Judges, they don't rubber stamp that. They look very carefully, especially in a high-profile case like this.

**Emily Jashinsky** (0:38)
The FBI seizing former Congressman Eric Swalwell's devices and searching his home as the investigation into multiple sexual assault allegations intensifies.

**Michael DeRiso** (0:47)
His son's an adult in college. Who monitors their adult child's Venmo account?

**Emily Jashinsky** (0:54)
New details revealing how social media helped investigators unravel the alleged Penn State fraternity cocaine ring. Conservative commentator Scott Jennings reportedly auditioning for a new role inside the Trump White House.
Bill Gates' daughter reportedly taking a secret Stanford class on how to rule the world before her startup was accused of gaming the system. All that and more coming up in just a moment on your AM Update.

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**Emily Jashinsky** (2:15)
The FBI reportedly seizing an iPhone and MacBook from disgraced former Congressman Eric Swalwell at San Francisco International Airport Saturday night, before agents searched his Washington, DC home the following day.
Sources telling Fox News the devices were taken as part of an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct. Swalwell was reportedly neither arrested nor detained. The raids coming four months after the California Democrat's political career imploded under the weight of multiple allegations of sexual assault and rape. At least five women, including one former staffer, accusing Swalwell of sexual misconduct or rape. Swalwell resigning from Congress in April after 13 years in office, as lawmakers threatened to expel him.
Around the same time, Swalwell also abandoning his campaign for California governor.
Swalwell, in a social media video at the time, acknowledging mistakes in judgment, while adamantly denying he ever sexually assaulted anyone.

**Eric Swalwell** (3:11)
These allegations of sexual assault are flat, false. They're absolutely false. They did not happen. They have never happened. I will fight them with everything that I have. They also come on the eve of an election, where I have been the front-runner candidate for governor in California.
I do not suggest to you in any way that I'm perfect or that I'm a saint. I've certainly made mistakes in judgment in my past. But those mistakes are between me and my wife. To her, I apologize deeply for putting her in this position.
I also apologize to you if in any way you have doubted your support for me. But I think you know who I am. For over 20 years, I have served the public as a city councilman, as a member of Congress, and as a prosecutor who went to court on behalf of victims, particularly on behalf of sexual assault victims. That's who I am and have always been.

**Emily Jashinsky** (4:05)
Swalwell reportedly facing separate investigations by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office and state authorities in Los Angeles. The federal involvement, however, raising a major legal question. Sex crimes are generally handled by state or local prosecutors, and simply accusing one person of assaults in multiple states does not automatically create a federal case. The New York Times reporting federal agents appear to be examining Swalwell's alleged conduct through civil rights statutes, though the precise federal theory remains unclear.
CNN senior legal analyst Eli Honig explaining what may have brought the FBI into the case and what the two reported search warrants tell us.

**Eli Honig** (4:42)
So sexual assault on its own is always going to be a state crime, but on its own, it's not a federal crime. You need some federal hook, and the fact that a person or the allegation that a person may have committed multiple sexual assaults in multiple states, that still is not going to give you federal jurisdiction. That's just going to mean you might have multiple state level charges. And so, you have to ask, what could have been the federal jurisdictional hook here? It could be, we don't know, but if some of this conduct happened on federal property or in a federal building, that would then give you federal jurisdiction. The thing we know for sure is prosecutors are able to convince, it sounds like two judges, if we have two warrants, that there's probable cause A, that a federal crime was committed, and B, that they will find evidence of that crime in the phones and the locations to be searched. And I'll tell you, having gone through that process of bringing that paperwork to judges, they don't rubber stamp that, they look very carefully, especially in a high-profile case like this.