President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth was investigated in 2017 for sexual assault, according to police in Monterey, California.
The woman who filed the report against Hegseth, said she couldn’t remember much of the night and was having memory problems when she spoke to police more than a week later. Hegseth told police it was consensual throughout, according to the Monterey Police investigative report.
The incident took place in the early hours of Oct. 8, 2017 at the Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel and Spa on Del Monte Golf Course, in Monterey, California where the National Federation of Republican Women held their 40th Biennial Convention from Oct. 6-8, 2017. According to the Monterey Police, Hegseth and the woman, who was referred to as Jane Doe in the investigative report, both stayed at the hotel.
The woman filed a confidential incident report Oct. 12, a few days after the alleged incident, according to a release by Monterey police. Monterey police confirmed last week that they investigated an alleged sexual assault in October 2017 in which Hegseth was named. The investigative report was released to Task & Purpose Wednesday night, noting that Hegseth received a copy of the same report March 30, 2021. The woman’s name was redacted from the report because of privacy laws.
According to the released police report, the interactions began when Doe met Hegseth on Oct. 7 after the conference. She told police that she observed Hegseth act inappropriately at the event which included rubbing women’s legs and she texted someone that Hegseth gave off a “’creeper’ vibe.” She also said that women at the conference thought Hegseth was “dreamy” and wanted pictures with him. Doe stated she also took a photo with him. According to testimony by an officer who spoke with Doe, she “commented on how she did not appreciate how he treated women.”
On Oct. 12, the woman went to the Kaiser Permanente hospital to request a sexual assault exam, according to an emergency room nurse’s testimony to Monterey police. The nurse said that the woman “believes that something may have been slipped into her drink, she cannot remember most of the night’s events.” Doe was asked by the ER nurse if she wanted to report it to police but she was “not sure what she wanted to do at this point and did not even want to disclose the suspect’s name at this point,” according to the nurse.
“The police report confirms what I’ve said all along: that the incident was fully investigated and the police found the allegations to be false which is why no charges were filed,” Tim Parlatore, Hegseth’s personal lawyer, told Task & Purpose.
Parlatore said police did a “complete investigation” and “found her allegation to be without merit.” He said that the allegations were a “lie meant to save her marriage because she cheated on her husband.”
Military.com reported that Hegseth made a payment to the woman in exchange for not making the allegations public. Parlatore told Military.com that they threatened a lawsuit, “knowing that the likelihood of success was minimal, but the mere public filing would cause him to lose his job.” Parlatore would not confirm the details with Task & Purpose.
Hegseth, who is currently a host on Fox News, served as an officer in the Army National Guards of five states between 2002 to 2021, leaving the service as a major, according to the Army. His deployments included Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Hegseth is the latest Global War on Terrorism veteran picked for Trump’s team. If confirmed by the Senate, he will join Marine veteran J.D. Vance, who will be sworn in as vice president in January, Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.), a retired National Guard colonel and Green Beret picked to serve as Trump’s national security advisor.
UPDATE: 11/21/2024; This article was updated after publication to incorporate new information found in the Monterey Police report, which was provided to Task & Purpose.
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