President-elect Donald Trump is standing by his pick of Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense, who is accused of sexually assaulting a woman in 2017.
“President Trump is nominating high-caliber and extremely qualified candidates to serve in his administration,” Steven Cheung told the Washington Examiner. “Mr. Hegseth has vigorously denied any and all accusations, and no charges were filed. We look forward to his confirmation” by the Senate.
In 2020, Hegseth entered into a settlement agreement with a woman who accused him of raping her in 2017 at the Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel and Spa in Monterey, California, which was hosting an event for the California Federation of Republican Women. Hegseth was a speaker at the event, and the woman, named Jane Doe in the settlement, was an organizer. They allegedly met for an after-party at the hotel bar.
“At the end of the after party, Mr. Hegseth left the bar with the complainant,” Timothy Parlatore, Hegseth’s lawyer, told the New York Times. “Witnesses stated that Mr. Hegseth was visibly intoxicated, but the complainant was not, as she led him by the arm to his hotel room. Video surveillance confirms that the two of them were ‘walking together with arms locked together’ and that the complainant was smiling.”
Jane Doe, who was staying at the hotel with her husband and two children, said she engaged with Hegseth at the hotel bar after she received a text message from a woman sitting with Hegseth at the bar that he was being too pushy. After going up to him, she said her memory became hazy, but she remembered ending up in his room and him assaulting her.
Afterward, she went to the hospital for a rape kit, which verified they’d had a sexual encounter. However, the incident was not reported to authorities till four days after the encounter.
Hegseth said the sexual encounter was consensual.
Two years after the alleged incident, at the height of the #MeToo Movement, Hegseth and his team heard that the woman was planning to file a lawsuit against Hegseth. They sent a cease-and-desist letter and immediately entered into a settlement agreement.
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“Mr. Hegseth strongly felt that he was the victim of blackmail and innocent collateral damage in a lie that the complainant was holding onto to keep her marriage intact,” Parlatore told the New York Times. “However, knowing that it was the height of the #MeToo Movement and any public accusation would result in his immediate termination from Fox, Mr. Hegseth ultimately decided to enter into a settlement for a significantly reduced amount.”
The Trump transition team was taken aback when learning of Hegseth’s sexual assault settlement, according to the New York Times. Given that it was confidential, the settlement did not come up during the transition team’s vetting process.