November 17th 2024.
According to Eric Tucker of the Associated Press, there has been some controversy surrounding President-elect Donald Trump's pick for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth. It has been revealed that Hegseth paid a woman who accused him of sexual assault in order to prevent a false lawsuit from being filed against him. This information came from Hegseth's lawyer, Tim Parlatore, who spoke with the Associated Press on Sunday.
The incident in question allegedly occurred in 2017, after Hegseth gave a speech at a Republican women's event in Monterey, California. However, no charges were ever filed against him. Parlatore claims that the sexual encounter was consensual and that the woman who made the accusation was actually the aggressor. However, the city has not confirmed this in their statement.
Parlatore also revealed that a confidential settlement was reached a few years after the incident, as Hegseth feared that a threatened lawsuit could have led to him losing his job as a popular host on Fox News. The amount of the payment was not disclosed. Parlatore believes that his client was the victim of blackmail, and called it a case of "successful extortion."
The Washington Post was the first to report on the details of the payment, and they also obtained a copy of a memo sent to Trump's transition team by a friend of the accuser. The memo contained details about the sexual assault allegations. As of now, the transition team has not made a comment on this memo.
According to the city's statement, the person who reported the assault had bruises on their right thigh and claimed that the incident occurred between 11:59 p.m. on October 7th and 7 a.m. the next morning. The statement also mentioned that no weapons were involved in the encounter. Hegseth was in Monterey at the time to address the California Federation of Republican Women.
The city has decided to withhold further details from the police report, as they contain analysis and conclusions that are exempt from public release under state law. At the time of the 2017 accusations, Hegseth was going through a divorce with his second wife, with whom he has three children. His first marriage also ended in divorce due to infidelity on his part.
After the accusations were made public last week, a spokesperson for the Trump transition team issued a statement, saying that they are nominating qualified candidates for the administration and that Hegseth has denied all allegations. They are looking forward to his confirmation as Secretary of Defense. Associated Press writer Will Weissert also contributed to this report from Palm Beach, Florida.
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