Ruben Gallego, the junior Democrat senator for Arizona, has quietly set up a legal defense fund – one month after best pal Eric Swalwell’s political career flamed amid a flurry of sex assault allegations.

An IRS filing obtained by the Daily Mail shows Gallego, 46, quietly registered a tax-exempt trust on May 22 called ‘The Senator Ruben Gallego Legal Defense Fund’.

The fund was registered as a 527 organization, a tax-exempt legal status for groups that get contributions or disburse money for political reasons.

Gallego listed the registered address for his legal defense fund to an office building in Phoenix while the trustee is local Democrat apparatchik and former state senator Raquel Terán.

 Florida Representative Anna Paulina Luna publicly accused Gallego of sexual misconduct in April and sources inside the Gallego camp acknowledged to the Daily Mail that the fund had been set up in response to her claims. 

They insisted she has provided no details or evidence concerning the allegation and said Gallego has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and is ‘fully complying’ with the ethics inquiry.

Married dad-of-three Gallego is one of Swalwell’s closest friends and even chaired his abortive 2020 run for the Democrat presidential nomination.

Swalwell also attended Gallego’s wedding to second wife Sydney Barron at the Hyatt Regency Grand Reserve Puerto Rico in June 2021.

The pair also took a freebie trip to Qatar together the following month along with their partners and were put up at the luxury Five Seasons hotel in Doha.

Photos posted by Swalwell showed the pair shirtless and enjoying a camel ride with the Persian Gulf sparkling in the background.

Gallego has claimed he knew nothing about his erstwhile pal’s ‘predatory’ behavior and had assumed the 44-year-old was ‘just a flirty social guy’.

In a statement to reporters shortly after Swalwell resigned from Congress, he went on: ‘My family and his family were as close as it gets.

‘Our kids were in baseball camp together. We had dinner together as a family. I did ask him [about the allegations] and he lied to me.’

The new fund would suggest Gallego is concerned about facing allegations of his own. He has a checkered personal life that includes dumping first wife Katie Wilson – now mayor of Phoenix – while she was pregnant with their son Michael, now 10.

Luna, 37, accused Gallego of sexual misconduct against another woman both on social media and in a CBS interview, claims he promptly denied.

She also referred Gallego to the Senate Ethics Committee with the embattled 46-year-old meeting with committee staff the following day.

In the interview, Luna described the allegations against Gallego as ‘sexual in nature’ and also accused him of campaign finance violations.

She added: ‘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.’  

Gallego hit back, with a spokesman deriding Luna’s claim as ‘conspiracy theories’ and adding: ‘These are right wing conspiracy theories being parroted by a fringe far right member of Congress.’  

While the Ethics Committee is yet to comment on the complaint about Gallego, the Arizona Democrat is also facing calls from other politicians to reveal more about what he knew about Swalwell’s activities.

Those activities allegedly included pursuing women too intoxicated to consent, sending nude photos of himself to women over Snapchat and of raping a 25-year-old staffer in a New York hotel room.

Swalwell has denied all the allegations but has admitted to cheating on his wife Brittany Watts, 42, on multiple occasions.

Days after Swalwell’s resignation from Congress, New York Republican Congressman Mike Lawler, 39, sent him a letter demanding the release of all the communications between the erstwhile best pals.

Lawler wrote: ‘In light of your personal and professional relationship with Eric Swalwell, I urge you to release all communications exchanged between yourself and the alleged predator.

‘As a strong advocate for releasing the Epstein files, it is only right that you adhere to the same standard set by you and Congress with respect to those with close ties to serial abusers.’

In a statement to the Daily Mail, Gallego’s spokesman Jacques Petit said: 'Senator Gallego is under attack from right-wing conspiracy theorists like Anna Paulina Luna, the Trump Administration, and their cronies.

'This White House has made clear it is their priority to abuse their power and target political enemies. Senator Gallego will not stand for it.’

It is not entirely without precedent for politicians facing inquiries to set up legal defense funds. In February, Democrat senators Mark Kelly and Elissa Slotkin set up defense funds after being accused of sedition by President Donald Trump.

And last August, California Democrat Adam Schiff set up a fund in response to an investigation launched into his finances by the Department of Justice.