from WNYC studios. I'm Brian Lerer. This is my daily politics podcast. It's Tuesday, April 14th.

So you've been hearing the news about Congressman Eric Swalwell giving up a seat and abandoning his campaign for governor of California.

That's the political headline. Here's a legal issue that may become important if Swalwell is

prosecuted. The former staffer who accused him of rape says the assault took place in a New York

hotel room after the two of them had been drinking.

Swalwell denies the charge.

Manhattan, DA, Alvin Bragg, is looking into the case.

If Bragg brings charges, he may run up against a piece of New York law known as the voluntary intoxication exclusion.

The voluntary intoxication exclusion. The exclusion makes it harder to find a

defendant guilty of a sex crime if the alleged victim voluntarily got drunk. Some states have this

exclusion. Some states don't. Members of the New York State Legislature have proposed closing the voluntary

intoxication exclusion for many years now, but the bill has never passed. Here's Assemblyman

from the Bronx Jeffrey Dinowitz last year, excuse me, last year on CNN, on New York one.

In situations like that where somebody is sexually assaulted, the cases are rarely prosecuted.

If you have a few drinks and you're drunk, that doesn't mean there's a sign on you that says,

you know, you could sexually assault me.

That's not right.

And we're trying to change that.

Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz last year.

We'll talk now about the potential Eric Swalwell case and the voluntary intoxication exclusion,

and more broadly about law and culture nearly a decade after the height of the Me Too movement.

Joining us is Jane Manning, a former sex crimes prosecutor,

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