The horror show of Donald Trump’s Cabinet selections continued last week, when the president-elect nominated daytime Fox News host Pete Hegseth to run the Department of Defense, a federal agency with more than 2 million employees that is considered one of the most complex organizations in the world. Days later, a woman sent the Trump transition team a memo accusing Hegseth—a National Guard member who doesn’t believe women should serve in combat — of sexually assaulting her friend at a conservative California women’s convention in 2017. Now, in a newly released police report about the incident from the city attorney’s office in Monterey, the victim, identified only as Jane Doe, accuses Hegseth of trapping her in a hotel room and sexually assaulting her while she was intoxicated, “even though she remembered saying ‘no’ a lot.”
According to the report, which was obtained by the New York Times, the alleged altercation took place after a convention for the California Federation of Republican Women, where Hegseth was giving a speech. Doe, an attendee, says one night, she and a group of women went to a hotel bar where Hegseth was present. There, she says, her memory “got fuzzy” and she suspected something had been slipped into her drink. The report says Hegseth and Doe left the bar together but Doe didn’t remember how she got to his hotel room, where she says he took her phone and blocked her from leaving. Doe says she doesn’t remember if they had intercourse but recalled saying “no” to Hegseth repeatedly and hearing him tell her to “clean it up” after he allegedly ejaculated on her stomach. Doe says she later went to the hospital for a rape kit exam, where a nurse reported the incident to authorities. No charges were filed.
For his part, Hegseth — whose lawyer said this past Sunday that he paid Doe an undisclosed sum as part of a nondisclosure agreement — offered authorities a different version of events. Per the same report, he told police that he and Doe had intercourse and that she was “comfortable with what was going on between the two of them” and “sat down in the room and did not leave,” adding that there was “‘always’ conversation and ‘always’ consensual contact.” He said the pair had a “very clear conversation” after the encounter and claimed Doe said would tell her husband, who was also attending the conference, that she had “fallen asleep in someone else’s room.” Hegseth also told police Doe showed “early signs of regret” but did not offer further detail.
While the allegation has reportedly rattled the Trump transition team, who are said to be frustrated by the lack of vetting around the Fox News host, it hasn’t deterred the president-elect from standing by his pick. “Mr. Hegseth has vigorously denied any and all accusations, and no charges were filed,” Trump communications director Steven Cheung said in a statement after the allegation surfaced. (Trump, of course, has also “vigorously denied” the laundry list of sexual misconduct allegations against himself.)
Fingers crossed that Hegseth will take a cue from Matt Gaetz and see himself out of this one.
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