Washington— Former Fox News host Pete Hegseth, President Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary, met with senators on Capitol Hill on Thursday as new details emerged about an alleged sexual assault that took place in 2017.
Hegseth was accompanied in the meetings by the Vice President-elect JD Vance, Ohio senator, because they sought to secure support among Republican senators for the former Fox News host expected nomination. Trump was elected The 44-year-old Army veteran – who served in Iraq and Afghanistan – last week, expressed his military experience and called himself a “Warrior for the Troops.”
Ahead of the meetings, the release of a detailed police report Last Wednesday drew attention to the selection of the secretary of defense, building on the information found in the investigation into Hegseth for the alleged sexual assault in 2017. The report includes a detailed account of the incident from an unnamed woman, Hegseth and others. Hegseth denied the allegations and described the incident as a consensual encounter.
Hegseth and Vance have met with Sens. Bill Hagerty and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Roger Wicker of Mississippi and Marco Rubio of Florida. Rubio was chosen by Trump to to be secretary of state but could vote for Hegseth’s nomination if he were still in the Senate if that happened.
Blackburn said he had a “great meeting” with Hegseth, noting that he is a Tennessean that “we look forward to supporting.”
Hagerty compared the allegations against Hegseth to those made against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2018. Kavanaugh was accused of assaulting Christine Blasey Ford when she was in high school in the 1980s. He denied the claim, and no one who attended the meeting where the incident allegedly took place could support Ford’s allegations.
“It’s a shame that the allegations are nothing but what you said, the allegations that he said,” he told reporters. “This is a case that has been dismissed. This is just scratching something, trying to smear and discredit the candidate. It reminds me of what happened to Brett Kavanaugh. It’s a disgrace.”
The Monterey Police Department forwarded reports of alleged assaults to the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office for review in 2017. Monterey County District Attorney Jeannine M. Pacioni said that in January 2018 her office “declined to file charges” because there was “no support from evidence beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, chairman of the Republican conference, praised Hegseth as a “strong” candidate to lead the Pentagon. Barrasso will be the second-highest Senate Republican in the next Congress after he was elected majority whip.
“We had a good discussion about the need for America’s military to remain the best in the world. That means taking care of our service members, equipping them with the latest technology, and focusing on making our military the deadliest force on the planet,” he said in a statement. “Pete promised that the Pentagon would focus on strong power and strength – not a political agenda.”
The charges against Hegseth were revealed last week when officials in Monterey, California, released a public statement announcing the incident that occurred on the night of October 7, 2017, and in the morning of October 8, 2017, at the Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel. An incident report was filed with the Monterey Police Department five days later.
The police report, which was released Wednesday to CBS News and other outlets in response to a public records request, provided more details about what happened between Hegseth and the unidentified woman. The alleged victim told police that Hegseth assaulted her after a Republican women’s event at the hotel. She said he took her phone, blocked the door to her hotel room and refused to leave her, according to the investigative report.
The report said law enforcement was first notified of the assault by a nurse who told police a patient had requested a sexual assault exam. Police also spoke to hotel staff and other women who were at the event with Hegseth.
The alleged victim told the nurse that she had been drinking with co-workers but thought something had slipped into her drink because she could not remember much of the night’s events. He remembers being in his co-worker’s hotel room, sitting on a couch or bed, and a bare-chested Hegseth hovering over him with a dog tag hanging over his face. According to the report, she said Hegseth ejaculated on her stomach and then asked, “Are you okay?”
The unidentified woman said her last memory was walking into her hotel room, although she told police she did not remember how she got back, the report states.
Hegseth also spoke to police and claimed the victim allegedly took him to his room. He said the interaction was consensual and he checked several times to make sure the woman was comfortable with what was happening, according to the report.
Timothy Parlatore, Hegseth’s attorney, said, “This police report confirms what I’ve been saying all along. If the incident is fully investigated and the police find the allegations to be false, then no charges will be filed.”
While no charges have been filed, neither Monterey police nor city officials have said the allegations are false.
Parlatore already told CBS News there is a client who paid a secret financial loan to a woman who was accused of sexual assault because she was worried that Fox News would fire people because of the allegations.
In addition to the allegations against Hegseth, his selection has been criticized for his lack of high-level national security experience. The Department of Defense is the largest federal agency, with more than 3 million civilian and military employees and a budget of more than $800 billion. She has also drawn criticism for her stance that women should not serve in combat roles in the US military.
The meeting came a day after former Rep. Matt Gaetz also met with the previous GOP senator withdraw his name of consideration for the attorney general. Gaetz said in a post on social media that it was clear that his candidacy “is unfairly a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition.”
Shawna Mizelle,
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contributed to this report.
