Trump’s Pentagon Pick Was Investigated Over Alleged Sexual Assault
Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks aren’t exactly strangers to controversy, but the alleged past of Defense Secretary Nominee Pete Hegseth is already forcing the president elect’s transition team to do damage control.
According to public records in 2017 Hegseth, a former Army service member and current Fox News host, was investigated over an alleged sexual assault in Monterey, California.
The City of Monterey confirmed that a police report had been made involving Hegseth, and declined to provide details beyond those required by The California Public Records Act. The information provided indicated that “The Monterey Police Department investigated an alleged sexual assault,” which took place around the early morning hours of Oct. 8, 2017, at 1 Old Golf Course Road.
The name of the alleged victim was not disclosed by Monterey officials, but the records request noted that the victim reported “contusions to [the] right thigh,” and that no weapons were involved in the assault.
In a statement given to Vanity Fair, Trump communications director Steven Cheung said that Hegseth “has vigorously denied any and all accusations, and no charges were filed.”
Despite the denials, the allegation raised concerns among Trump’s transition team. According to sources who spoke to Vanity Fair, Trump campaign director and incoming White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles was briefed on the allegation against Hegseth earlier this week, and was worried enough to meet with Hegseth and attorneys for Trump the next day. Hegseth reportedly claimed that the police report had stemmed from a consensual encounter and “characterized the episode as he-said, she-said.”
Hegseth’s attorney, Timothy Parlatore, told Vanity Fair that the “allegation was already investigated by the Monterey police department and they found no evidence for it.”
The nomination of the longtime Fox News host to head the Department of Defense was one in a string of picks indicating that the president-elect is prioritizing blind loyalty and ideological extremism in his inner circle.
Hegseth served in Iraq and Afghanistan, but has no government experience and is best known for his years-long staunch and public sycophancy for Trump as a host of Fox & Friends, the president-elect’s morning show of preference.
The man who may head the Pentagon has previously floated support for “a preemptive strike” against North Korea,” defended accused war criminals and members of Blackwater, as well as advocated for the elimination of women from combat roles in the military.
Trump, who for weeks on the campaign trail was playing clips from Full Metal Jacket to showcase his idealized version of the military, picked Hegseth to manifest his desire to “de-woke” the military.
In July, Hegseth told Fox News viewers that America needs “a new commander in chief that’s going to get rid of all of this CRT, DEI nonsense, all the gender nonsense.”
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