Fox News host Pete Hegseth was tapped by the Trump team for Secretary of Defense just a few days ago, but they may already be reconsidering that decision. According to a report in the Washington Post, the second thoughts come as the president-elect’s transition team has been made aware of a complaint filed with Monterey police alleging that Hegseth sexually assaulted a woman in 2017.
The complaint, which was filed by a friend of the alleged victim, claims that she was assaulted by Hegseth at her hotel after a Republican conference. The victim later signed a nondisclosure agreement with him. Monterey Police confirmed to the Post that they investigated the incident at the time, but that the incident did not lead to charges against Hegseth. The incident allegedly took place between midnight on Oct. 7, 2017 and 7 a.m. the following morning at the Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel and Spa.
A person familiar with the matter told the Post that “there’s a lot of frustration around this” within the Trump team, and that Hegseth was “not properly vetted.” Another source, however, told Vanity Fair that Hegseth “was vetted, but this alleged incident didn’t come up.” His lawyer, Tim Parlatore, told the paper that the claims were “fully investigated and found not to be true,” and when asked if Hegseth had indeed arranged a nondisclosure agreement, dodged by saying that “there’s no more skeletons to come out.”
Trump communications director Steven Cheung indicated that Trump is standing behind his now-embattled nominee: “we look forward to his confirmation as United States Secretary of Defense so he can get started on Day One to Make America Safe and Great Again.”
It was recently revealed that Trump’s transition team planned to forgo FBI background checks for some Cabinet-level appointments, choosing instead to go with private firms. According to the Post’s sources, no such check had been done on Hegseth since Trump announced his appointment.
A veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, Hegseth joined Fox News as a contributor in 2014, becoming a consistent fixture across various shows, more recently as a regular guest on Unfiltered with Dan Bongino. Hegseth published the book American Crusade: Our Fight to Stay Free in 2021, arguing that there are “irreconcilable differences between the Left and the Right in America leading to perpetual conflict that cannot be resolved through the political process.”
