A woman told police she was sexually assaulted in 2017 by Pete Hegseth after he took the phone, blocked the door to a California hotel room, and refused to leave, according to a detailed investigative report made public on Wednesday (November 20, 2017). 2024).
“Hegeseth, a Fox News personality and President-elect Donald Trump who is the Secretary of Defense, told the police at the time that the meeting was consensual and denied any wrongdoing,” the report said.
News of the allegations emerged last week when local officials released a brief statement confirming that a woman had accused Mr. Hegseth of sexual assault in October 2017 after he spoke at a Republican women’s event in Monterey.
Hegseth’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment early Thursday (Nov. 21, 2024). They said Mr Hegseth paid the woman in 2023 to avoid the threat of a futile lawsuit.
The 22-page police report was released in response to a public records request and offers the first detailed account of what the woman alleges happened – which is inconsistent with Mr Hegseth’s version of events. The report cited police interviews with the alleged victim, the nurse who treated her, hotel staff, other women at the event, and Mr. Hegseth.
The woman’s name has not been released, and The Associated Press typically does not name those who say they have been sexually assaulted.
Mr. Trump’s transition spokesman said early Thursday (November 21, 2024) that “the report supports what Mr. Hegseth’s attorney said: the incident was fully investigated and no charges were filed because the police found the allegations to be false.”
The report did not say that the police found the allegations to be false. Police recommended the case report be forwarded to the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office for review.
Investigators ​​​​were first alerted to the alleged assault, the report said, by a nurse who called them after a patient requested a sexual assault exam. The patient told medical personnel that he believed he had been assaulted five days earlier but could not remember what had happened. He reported that he dipped something in his drink before entering the hotel room where he said the attack took place.
Police collected the unwashed clothes and underwear worn that night, the report said.
A female partner who was staying at the hotel with him, told police they were worried about him that night after he didn’t return to his room. At 2 in the morning, he went to the hotel bar, but he was not there. He returned a few hours later, apologizing that he “had to sleep.” A few days later, she told me she had been sexually assaulted.
The woman, who helped organize the meeting of the California Federation of Republican Women where Mr. Hegseth spoke, told the police that she had witnessed the TV anchor acting inappropriately throughout the night and saw him stroking the woman’s thigh several times. He texted a friend that Mr. Hegseth gave off a “creeper” vibe, according to the report.
After the event, the woman and others attended a party in a hotel room where she said she confronted Mr. Hegseth, telling him he “didn’t appreciate how he treated women,” the report states.
A group of people, including Mr. Hegseth and a woman, decamped to the hotel bar. That’s when “things got blurry,” the woman told police.
He recalled drinking at the bar with Mr. Hegseth and others, the police report stated. He also told police he had argued with Mr. Hegseth near the hotel pool, an account supported by hotel staff sent to deal with the disturbance and speak to police, according to the report.
A short time later, she told police, she was inside a hotel room with Mr. Hegseth, who took the phone and blocked the door with his body so she couldn’t leave, according to the report. He also told police he remembered “saying ‘no’ a lot,” the report said.
Her next memory was sitting on a couch or bed with Mr. Hegseth hovering over her bare chest, his dog tag on her, the report states. Mr. Hegseth served in the National Guard, rising to the rank of major.
After Mr. Hegseth finished, she remembers asking him if he was “OK,” the report said. He told police he didn’t remember how he got back to his hotel room alone and started having nightmares and memory loss.
At the time of the alleged attack in 2017, Mr Hegseth, now 44, was going through a divorce from his second wife, with whom he had three children. She filed for divorce after she had a child with a Fox News producer who is now his wife, according to court records and social media posts by Mr. Hegseth. Her first marriage ended in 2009, also after Mr. Hegseth’s infidelity, according to court records.
Mr Hegseth said he attended the party and drank beer but no liquor, and admitted he was “buzzed” but not drunk.
He said he met a woman in the hotel bar, and he led him by the arm back to the hotel room, which surprised him because he had no intention of having sex with her at first, the report said.
Mr. Hegseth told investigators that the sexual encounter that followed was consensual, adding that he clearly asked more than once if he was comfortable. Mr. Hegseth said that morning the woman “showed early signs of remorse,” and he assured her that she would not tell anyone about the encounter.
Mr Hegseth’s lawyer said the payment was made to the woman as part of a confidential settlement years after a police investigation because Mr Hegseth was concerned she was preparing to file a lawsuit he feared could lead to his dismissal. Fox News, where he is a popular host. The attorney would not disclose the amount of the payment.
Published – November 22, 2024 01:40 IST
