Police Report Provides New Details Of Assault Allegation Against Pete Hegseth, Trump’s Defense Secretary Nominee And Former Fox News Host
Pete Hegseth, who departed Fox News last week when he was chosen as Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Defense, now faces the disclosure of new details of a 2017 encounter in which a woman told police that he sexually assaulted her at a Monterey, CA hotel.
Mediaite first obtained the full police report on the incident.
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Hegseth has denied the woman’s claims, and no charges were filed. His attorney told The Washington Post last weekend that the woman was paid as part of a confidential settlement in 2020, after she warned that she intended to file a civil lawsuit. His attorney said that Hegseth was concerned that the publicity would jeopardize his position at Fox News.
A Fox News spokesperson said last week that they were not made aware of the incident or the settlement.
According to the report, a nurse first reported the incident after the woman came in requesting a sexual assault exam several days after her encounter with Hegseth.
The woman, who was identified as Jane Doe in the report, had been at the Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel at a Republican women’s conference drinking with co-workers and believed that something may have been slipped into her drink, “as she cannot remember most of the night’s events.” Hegseth was listed in the report as a Fox News contributor.
According to the report, the woman had attended an after-party in the hotel’s President’s suite and recalled seeing Hegseth there. She said that she consumed a small amount of champagne there, but does not remember drinking hard alcohol.
She then recalled going to a sports bar attached to the hotel, where Hegseth was also at the bar. She remembered being handed one drink by the bartender, but did not recall how many alcoholic beverages she had.
She said that she recalled seeing Hegseth “acting inappropriately” with women at the conference, including rubbing them on their legs. She texted a friend that Hegseth was giving off a “creeper” vibe, but other women thought he was “dreamy” and wanted pictures with him.
The woman recalled walking out of the bar to the pool, and assumed that Hegseth followed her because they got into an argument, according to the report. According to the report, hotel security approached them after complaints, and Hegseth told the employee that “he had freedom of speech.” The woman apologized for Hegseth’s remarks.
Her next memory was when she was in an “unknown room” with Hegseth. He took her phone from her and “blocked the door with his body.” The woman “remembered saying ‘no’ a lot,” but she said that she did not “remember much else.”
Her next memory, according to the report, was on a bed or a couch, and Hegseth was over her and his “dog tags were hovering over her face.” The next memory was that he ejaculated on her stomach, and he threw a towel at her and asked, “Are you OK?”
Her next memory was walking back to her room and getting into bed, according to the report. She stated that “she woke up in the morning and took a shower before going to work.” After her memory with Hegseth was “triggered” when she had sex with her partner, she went to the hospital four days later.
Hegseth told police that he was “buzzed” but not intoxicated. He said that after he went back to his room with the woman, she stayed and he was “confused” why she remained. But then, he said, things “progressed,” but their interaction was “consensual.” He said that they had sex, and he pulled out and ejaculated on her body. He said that he gave her something to clean up and she later got dressed, according to the report. He said that she showed “early signs of regret” and that she would tell her husband that she had fallen asleep on a couch in someone else’s room.
A Trump transition spokesperson told the AP that the report “corroborates what Mr. Hegseth’s attorneys have said all along: the incident was fully investigated and no charges were filed because police found the allegations to be false.” The report does not say that police found the allegations to be false. Instead, the report was sent to the Monterey County District Attorney, who did not file charges.
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