Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) testified Monday about his experience during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack as a witness in the Colorado trial aiming to determine whether former President Trump is eligible to be on the state’s 2024 ballot under the 14th Amendment’s “insurrection” clause.
Swalwell testified that on the morning of Jan. 6, he took his usual run from his Washington residency to the U.S. Capitol and back. On the run, he recalled seeing dozens of individuals carrying “Stop the Steal” signs and wearing military gear. He said he pulled his cap over his face to avoid being recognized by the crowd as an “unsettling feeling about the direction the day was heading” set in.
As the day wore on, Swalwell said he and other Capitol employees began receiving internal emails warning of the gathering mob and of pipe bombs found near the grounds. Shortly after, Pelosi and other House leaders were rushed out of the room, and members were told to grab the gas masks from under their seats and be ready to evacuate.
“Until that moment, I didn’t know there were gas masks under our seats,” Swalwell testified.
Swalwell moved to sit with Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), who had begun helping lawmakers — women first — put on their gas masks, telling them to breathe slowly. Choking back tears, Swalwell testified that Gallego handed him a pen and suggested he use it as a weapon. Then, a congressional chaplain began to pray at the podium unprompted, he said.
Martha Tierney, an attorney for the plaintiffs in the case, asked Swalwell whether he was monitoring Trump’s tweets as the day evolved. He said he was.
“We connected the president’s tweets to our own safety in the chamber and also the integrity of the proceedings taking place,” Swalwell said.
During cross-examination, Trump’s attorney turned Swalwell’s own tweets against him, suggesting his fiery language was not intended to actually inspire violence — and neither was Trump’s.
In a May 2022 tweet, Swalwell wrote: “If you think they’ll stop with a women’s right to choose, you haven’t been paying attention. We have to fight like our lives depend on it, because clearly, they do.”
“You were not advocating violence?” the Trump attorney asked.
“I was not,” Swalwell said.
Swalwell has said he was among the last lawmakers to leave the House floor during the Capitol attack.
“I thought it was one of the safest places, one of the most heavily fortified places in the world,” Swalwell told the San Francisco Chronicle in January 2021. “That’s one of the most unsettling things about the day. It is such a sacred, symbolic and fortified space. I am still in disbelief.”
The lawsuit, filed in September by CREW and six Colorado voters, suggests Section 3 of the 14th Amendment disqualifies Trump from holding office again. The amendment says anyone who took an oath to support the Constitution but then “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against it cannot hold office.
The plaintiffs assert Trump’s role in the Capitol attack — inflaming his supporters with false claims of election fraud and directing their aim at the Capitol — meets that threshold.
Colorado Judge Sarah Wallace is overseeing the bench trial, meaning there is no jury and she will be the sole decider of the case’s outcome.
Wallace said the trial will address nine topics, including the meaning of “engaged” and “insurrection” as used in the 14th Amendment and whether Trump’s conduct qualifies.
The trial is expected to last about a week.
Updated at 3:56 p.m.