Donald Trump‘s defense secretary pick paid off a woman who accused him of raping her seven years ago.
Pete Hegseth, a Fox News pundit and former National Guard officer, was investigated for an alleged sexual assault in 2017 but no charges were filed.
The alleged rape took place in the early morning hours of October 8, 2017, at the Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel and Spa in Monterey, California.
Local police investigated ‘an alleged sexual assault’ involving Hegseth, that was reported four days later, the city said.
No weapons were involved, according to the statement, but there were injuries – ‘contusions to right thigh.’
No further details were released and the city said it would not release the full police report, noting it was exempt from public disclosure. The statement did not say what happened to the investigation.
Hegseth, who was divorced from his second wife at the time of the alleged rape, has not been charged in any criminal case or named as a defendant in any civil lawsuit.
Timothy Parlatore, a lawyer representing Hegseth, admitted to the Washington Post that his client paid the woman for her silence.
He said Hegseth paid her an undisclosed amount because he feared the allegation getting out ‘would result in his immediate termination from Fox’.
Parlatore said Hegseth was drunk and claimed the woman was ‘the aggressor in the encounter’, which police did not agree with.
A complaint from an unnamed woman with extensive knowledge of the alleged rape sent to Trump’s staff explained the story police were told at the time.
Hegseth was a speaker at the California Federation of Republican Women conference at the Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel and Spa the day of the alleged rape.
He joined other guests at the hotel bar afterwards along with the woman, who was staying at the hotel with her husband and young children.
Part of her job for the conference was to make sure Hegseth got out of bed the next morning in time to catch his flight home.
At some point that night, she got texts from two women at the bar saying Hegseth ‘was getting pushy about his interest in taking them upstairs to his room,’ it was claimed.
She allegedly came over and talked to them, and when they left she ‘remembered sensing that Hegseth was irritated’.
The memo sent by the other woman claimed she ‘didn’t remember anything until she was in Hegseth’s hotel room and then stumbling to find her hotel room’.
The six to nine hours after intervening in Hegseth flirting with the other women were ‘very hazy’, the memo claimed.
When she returned home, she ‘had a moment of hazy memory of being raped the night before, and had a panic attack’, the memo alleged.
That was when she went to the ER and had a rape kit taken that was positive for semen.
The woman who wrote the memo explained they had been friends for 15 years and she had ‘never known her to be irresponsible, drunk, or ever of questionable character’.
Parlatore argued a very different series of events where the sex was consensual and the woman took advantage of Hegseth.
‘Witnesses stated that Mr Hegseth was visibly intoxicated but the complainant was not, as she led him by the arm to his hotel room,’ he said.
He claimed they walked out of the bar arm-in-arm and she was smiling, and when they got to his room, she was ‘the aggressor in initiating sexual activity’.
The woman planned to tell her husband she fell asleep on a couch in a friend’s room, Parlatore claimed Hegseth told police.
He said the ER examination ‘produced no evidence that the sexual contact was nonconsensual’.
The memo written by the friend said some time after the police opted not to pursue the case, she and her husband hired a lawyer ‘to ensure Hegseth didn’t get off without punishment’.
Parlatore said he responded with a cease and desist order on February 2, 2020, which was provided to the Post.
‘Should you choose to proceed with the filing of a frivolous lawsuit against my client, my client has directed our firm to pursue all available remedies against you,’ the letter read.
‘Both you and Mr Hegseth have spouses, families and children that you undoubtedly both love very much and a public fight is not in anyone’s best interest – especially in a case like this where both the law and the facts are against.’
Hegseth’s then-wife was in the process of divorcing him at the time of the alleged rape.
The woman Hegseth eventually began negotiating a non-disclosure agreement, which was signed about two-and-a-half years after the alleged rape.
‘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 said.
The lawyer claimed Hegseth felt it was in his best interest to settle as it was the height of the MeToo movement at the time.
Incoming chief of staff Susie Wiles was briefed Wednesday night about the allegation, Vanity Fair reported.
Wiles and Trump’s lawyers spoke to Hegseth about it on Thursday. Hegseth told them the allegation stemmed from a consensual encounter and called it a ‘he-said, she-said’ situation, a source told Vanity Fair.
Trump is standing by his nominee, his staff said.
‘Mr Hegseth has vigorously denied any and all accusations, and no charges were filed,’ Trump communications director Steven Cheung said.
‘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.’
Hegseth’s nomination to lead the Pentagon is controversial.
He is a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan with a handful of military medals, including two Bronze Stars.
But many have questioned whether the 44-year-old co-host of ‘Fox & Friends Weekends’ can handle managing the Defense Department, which has a budget of $842 billion, almost three million employees and 750 military installations around the world.
He also has a history of controversial statements and once called liberals ‘domestic enemies.’
And he has said women should not be in combat for the US military, a point he has made repeatedly including last week in an interview with ‘The Shawn Ryan Show’ podcast.
‘I’m straight up just saying, we should not have women in combat roles,’ Hegseth said on that podcast. ‘It hasn’t made us more effective, hasn’t made us more lethal, has made fighting more complicated.’
His support for combat veterans accused of war crimes also has drawn criticism.
Many have questioned whether he can win Senate confirmation because of his lack of experience.
Since 2019, Hegseth has been married to his third wife, Fox News producer Jennifer Rauchet. The two were married at Trump’s National Gold Club in Colts Neck, New Jersey.
‘They will have a fantastic life together,’ Trump wrote on Twitter of the marriage.
Hegseth and his first wife, Meredith Schwarz, divorced in 2009 amid allegations he cheated.
A year later, Hegseth married Samantha Deering. In 2014, four years into their marriage, Hegseth started working at Fox News.
There he got involved with Jennifer Rauchet, a producer at the network. Rauchet was also married at the beginning of her relationship with Hegseth.
In 2017 the situation became public knowledge. Hegseth was already a father of three kids with Deering, and, in August 2017, he and Rauchet had a daughter together.
Hegseth and Deering divorced in August 2017, the same month his child was born with Rauchet. The alleged assault in California took place in October of that year.
One Hegseth ally blamed the surfacing of the allegation on GOP establishment members who are trying to thwart Hegseth’s nomination.
‘They’ll try to kill all these nominations before the confirmation vote,’ the ally said told Vanity Fair.
