At a press conference in Beverly Hills on Tuesday, Lonna Drewes said she was working as a model in Beverly Hills, was interested in local politics, and owned a fashion software company when she met the now 45-year-old congressman.

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“He invited me to two public events. I knew he was married at the time and that his wife was pregnant. He was my friend. On the third occasion, I believe he drugged my drink. I only had one glass of wine. We were supposed to go to a political event and he said he needed to get paperwork from his hotel room,” Drewes said.

“When I arrived at his hotel room, I was already incapacitated and I couldn’t move my arms or my body. He raped me and he choked me and while he was choking me, I lost consciousness and I thought I died.”

She said she “did not consent to any sexual activity”, and added: “Although I did not undergo a rape kit at the time, I disclosed the assault to the people closest to me. I also recorded these events in my handwritten calendar … the assault and its impact were later documented during my therapy sessions at a sexual assault center in Connecticut.”

Drewes described the alleged incident’s impact on her mental health, saying she self-medicated “in an unhealthy way” and “cried all the time”.