A California woman told police that veteran and media host Pete Hegseth, President-elect Trump’s pick for Defense secretary, sexually assaulted her in 2017 after he took her phone and refused to let her leave a hotel room, a detailed police report said.
Hegseth, known for his role in Fox News’s “Fox & Friends,” told police at the time that the encounter was consensual and denied wrongdoing, The Associated Press reported.
He was picked by Trump to lead the Pentagon shortly after the election, and his nomination came as a surprise given his relative lack of experience. Hegseth was an infantry officer in the Army National Guard.
The Monterey Police Department confirmed last week that they were investigating sexual assault allegations that came to light after his nomination.
Hegseth’s lawyer argued that he was “completely innocent” and was actually the subject of blackmail from the woman. The attorney noted that he paid the woman in 2023 to fend off a potential lawsuit.
While many of Trump’s Cabinet picks are facing scrutiny ahead of confirmation — including former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) as attorney general and former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence — Hegseth has received significant backlash over the allegations.
The police report was released after the public records were requested. It details the woman’s alleged experience, one that the AP noted, is different from Hegseth’s version. It also included interviews with the alleged victim, a nurse who treated her, a hotel employee, another woman and Hegseth.
The woman sought medical care and said she believed she was sexually assaulted five days earlier but couldn’t remember much because she thought she was slipped something in her drink before winding up in a hotel room.
The Hill has reached out to the Trump transition team for comment, but a spokeswoman told the AP that the police report “corroborates” Hegseth’s story, which is “the incident was fully investigated, and no charges were filed because police found the allegations to be false.”
The police did not disclose whether officials believe the allegations are true or false.
According to the report, the woman helped organize an event for the California Federation of Republican Women (CFRW), where Hegseth was a speaker. She told police she saw him inappropriately touch women throughout the night and the two argued later over “how he treated women.”
After they attended an afterparty in a hotel suite, a group of people went to the hotel bar and then “things got fuzzy,” she told police.
Once inside a hotel room with Hegseth took her phone and blocked the door with his body, she alleged. The report said the woman recalled “saying ‘no’ a lot” and that her next memory was laying down with him over her, bare-chested.
Hegseth told police he attended an afterparty and drank beer, but not liquor, and got “buzzed,” but not drunk. He said the woman led him back to his hotel room, which was surprising because he didn’t intend on having sexual relations with her.
He isn’t the only nominee being investigated for sexual misconduct. Gaetz, who resigned from Congress after receiving Trump’s nomination to head the Justice Department, was accused of sleeping with an underage girl and Congress is battling over releasing the report to the public.
The Associated Press contributed.
