I recently wrote that rumors suggested Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) might be the next domino to fall after sexual misconduct allegations took down Eric Swalwell.
Well, it’s happened. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) has confirmed that the previously unnamed senator she accused of “very disturbing” misconduct earlier this week is, in fact, Gallego.
Luna confirmed this during an interview with CBS News’ Major Garrett, who pressed her about the cryptic X post she made on Wednesday.
When Garrett asked her point-blank who she was talking about, Luna didn’t dance around it.
“We are talking about an Arizona senator that was very closely tied to Eric Swalwell,” she said, confirming it was Gallego when Garrett named him directly. She also noted that she’d already been in contact with Thune’s chief of staff and that the matter had been referred to Senate Select Committee on Ethics for investigation.
So what exactly is “very disturbing”? Luna laid it out, albeit carefully. “Without, I guess, getting too graphic, there is a woman that allegedly is coming forward with attorneys, wants to go on record about an incident that occurred between the two of them at the same time, and the event was sexual in nature, allegedly.”
Luna added that the allegations extend beyond that, pointing to what she described as two separate campaign finance violations.
Luna was clear that she was not positioning herself as an investigator. She’s one House member, not a prosecutor, not an ethics committee, and not the Senate. But she made it clear she has no interest in doing what she says too many of her colleagues have done.
”I’m not going to be like some of my colleagues that waited, you know, forever and a day to bring this information forward,” she said. “I think that if this is happening, that it needs to be dealt with.”
When Garrett asked whether any of the allegations against Gallego sounded criminal to her, she said, “I think that if it involves people that were potentially trafficked, yes.”
That’s a serious word, and Garrett pushed her on it, but Luna didn’t back down: “I think any time that you are knowingly engaging in purchasing someone for sex, that that is something that should be taken seriously.” She noted the U.S. already ranks among the worst countries in the world for human trafficking according to the State Department’s own Trafficking in Persons report.
Luna connected the dots to a broader pattern she says has been an open secret in Washington: “A lot of this behavior was circulating publicly. People had heard about it, but they didn’t present it to the appropriate authorities.” She also took direct aim at Congress’s infamous slush fund used to settle sexual harassment and assault claims quietly. Three-quarters of Congress voted to protect that fund, she noted. House Committee on Oversight had to subpoena the records, which she expects to arrive the following week.
She even acknowledged the obvious counterargument: that false allegations exist and ruin careers. But given what’s already surfaced about Swalwell and the fact that multiple members of Congress are now reportedly under active ethics scrutiny for similar conduct, she concluded that the risk of inaction outweighs the discomfort of speaking out. “Most people don’t have these types of allegations. Most people don’t have these types of rumors floating around about their offices,” she said.
“I don’t want to serve with these people. I don’t think that they should be in positions of power, and I definitely don’t like what I’ve seen in regards to how they’ve treated women specifically. It’s actually really gross when you hear about it.”
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