US defense secretary candidate Hegseth is stirring up controversy in Washington when he was accused of sexually assaulting a woman 7 years ago.
The Monterey Police Department in California said last week that they had investigated an allegation of sexual assault involving Pete Hegseth in 2017 at the Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel and Spa. Police ultimately did not prosecute Hegseth.
Hegseth, 44 years old, is a former Fox News host and President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for secretary of defense.
Pete Hegseth hosts a Fox awards show in November 2023. Image: AFP
Washington Post and NYTimes obtained a document believed to be a memo that Mr. Trump’s team received in the middle of last week. The sender claimed to be friends with the woman known as “Jane Doe”. She said that Jane Doe was raped by Hegseth while staying at a hotel with her husband and two children on October 7, 2017. Jane Doe was 30 years old at the time and working for the California Federation of Republican Women convention.
“John Doe” (for men) and “Jane Doe” (for women) are not proper names but are conventional names, used in the United States to refer to an unidentified person or whose identity is hidden in public relations. litigation.
Hegseth was at the hotel to speak at a California Federation of Republican Women event. The memo said Hegseth was with two other women at a bar after his speech when Jane Doe received a text message from them, saying Hegseth was trying to lure them to his room.
Jane Doe stepped forward to try to calm the situation. The other two women left and from that point on, the memo said Jane did not remember anything until she was in Hegseth’s hotel room. She had only vague memories of being there and then staggered back to her room. The next day, she had “unclear memories” of being raped the night before.
She went to the hospital and was tested with a rape detection kit, which showed semen was present.
However, Timothy Parlatore, Hegseth’s attorney, said the two had consensual sex and gave a very different version of the story.
Parlatore said Hegseth gave a speech and then attended a party at the hotel bar with several people, including the woman mentioned above.
“At the end of the party, he left the bar with the complainant,” Parlatore said. “Witnesses said Hegseth was clearly drunk but the complainant was not because she led him by the hand to the hotel room. Surveillance video confirmed that the two ‘walked with their arms tightly linked’ and the complainant Nai is smiling”.
According to the police statement, the complaint was filed four days after the encounter and the complainant suffered bruises on her thighs.
Parlatore said two years later, when he and his client heard that the woman was no longer working for the Republican women’s group, they knew she had discussed the possibility of filing a lawsuit against Hegseth. Parlatore sent her a letter of agreement in February 2020 and the two sides signed a settlement agreement a few months later.
“Hegseth feels he was the victim of extortion and suffered property damage, and that the complainant lied to protect his marriage,” Parlatore said. “However, knowing that the moment was the height of the #MeToo movement and that any public accusations would result in his immediate termination from Fox, Hegseth ultimately decided to get involved.” a settlement for a significantly reduced amount.” It is unclear how much money is involved.
Hegseth, a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, has long been a favorite of Mr. Trump. He considered choosing Hegseth to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs during his first term, but then chose someone else.
President-elect Trump, who has been accused multiple times of sexual assault, often encourages people facing similar troubles to fight back if they believe they have been wronged.
But in the Hegseth case, Trump’s team was caught by surprise. The settlement was kept confidential and did not appear during his screening of candidates, according to a source familiar with the matter. The president-elect often does not like it when people related to him are negatively reported in the media.
However, Mr. Trump has told advisers that he still supports his candidate, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
On November 17, Steven Cheung, Trump’s communications director, said the President-elect “is nominating highly qualified and extremely qualified candidates to serve in the administration.”
“Hegseth has firmly denied all charges and the police have not brought any charges against him. We look forward to his confirmation by the Senate,” Cheung added.