Assault allegations against Pete Hegseth, Trump’s pick for defense secretary, have been revealed

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. – A woman told police she was sexually assaulted by Pete Hegseth in 2017 after he took her phone, locked the door to a California hotel room and wouldn’t let her leave, according to a detailed investigative report released made public late Wednesday.

The report shows that Hegseth, a former Fox News personality and President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for defense secretary, told police at the time that the meeting was consensual and denied any impropriety.

News of the allegations broke last week when local officials released a brief statement confirming that a woman had accused Hegseth of sexual assault in October 2017 after he spoke at a Republican women’s event in Monterey.

Hegseth’s lawyer, Timothy Palatore, said in a statement that the police report confirms “what I have said from the beginning, that the incident was thoroughly investigated and police found the allegations to be false and therefore no charges have been filed.”

Palatore said Hegseth paid the woman in 2023 as part of a confidential settlement to head off the threat of what he called a baseless lawsuit.

The 22-page police report was released in response to a public information request and provides the woman’s first detailed account of what allegedly happened – contradicting Hegseth’s version of events. The report cited police interviews with the alleged victim, the nurse who treated her, a hotel employee, another woman at the event and Hegseth.

The woman’s name has not been released, and The Associated Press does not typically report the names of people who say they have been victims of sexual assault.

A Trump transition spokeswoman said early Thursday that “the report confirms what Mr. Hegseth’s lawyers have argued all along: The incident was thoroughly investigated and no charges were filed because police determined the allegations were false.”

The report does not indicate that the police found the allegations false. Police recommended that the case report be sent to the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office for review.

According to the report, investigators were first alerted to the alleged assault by a nurse who called them after a patient asked for a sexual assault exam. The patient told medical staff that she believed she had been attacked five days earlier, but had little memory of what happened. She testified that something may have been slipped into her drink before she got to the hotel room where she claims the assault occurred.

The report said police collected the unwashed dress and underwear she was wearing that night.

The woman’s partner, who was staying with her at the hotel, told police he was worried about her that night when she did not return to their room. At 2 a.m. he went to the hotel bar, but she wasn’t there. She returned a few hours later, apologizing that she “must have fallen asleep.” A few days later, she told him that she had experienced sexual violence.

A woman who helped organize the California Federation of Republican Women meeting at which Hegseth spoke told police she witnessed the TV host’s inappropriate behavior throughout the night and saw him stroking the thighs of multiple women. The report states that she texted a friend that Hegseth had a “scary” vibe.

After the event, the woman and others attended an after-party in a hotel suite, during which she said she confronted Hegseth, telling him that he “didn’t appreciate the way he treated women,” the report said.

A group of people, including Hegseth and a woman, went to the hotel bar. That’s when “the situation became unclear,” the woman told police.

The police report stated that she remembered having drinks at a bar with Hegseth and others. She also told police that she and Hegseth had an argument near the hotel pool, an account corroborated by a hotel employee who was dispatched to deal with the disturbance and spoke to police, according to the report.

The report says she soon told police she was in the hotel room with Hegseth, who took her phone and blocked the door with his body, preventing her from leaving. She also told police she remembered “she said ‘no’ often,” the report said.

Her next memory was of lying on a couch or bed with a naked Hegseth hovering over her and his dog tags hanging from him, the report said. Hegseth served in the National Guard, rising to the rank of major.

When Hegseth finished, the report says, he threw a towel at her and asked if “everything was OK.” She told police she did not remember returning to her hotel room and had since suffered nightmares and memory loss.

At the time of the alleged assault, Hegseth, now 44, was in the process of divorcing his second wife, with whom he has three children. Court records and Hegseth’s social media posts show that she filed for divorce after he had a child with the Fox News producer, who is now his third wife. Court records show that his first marriage ended in 2009, also due to Hegseth’s infidelity.

Hegseth, who joined Fox News as a contributor in 2014 before becoming co-host of “Fox & Friends Weekend,” left the network after Trump announced his intention to nominate him.

Hegseth said he was at the after party and drank beer but not alcohol, and admitted he was “excited” but not drunk.

He said he met the woman at the hotel bar and she led him by the arm back to the hotel room, which surprised him because he initially had no intention of having sex with her, according to the report.

Hegseth told investigators that the sexual intercourse that occurred was consensual, adding that he explicitly asked on more than one occasion if she was comfortable. Hegseth said that in the morning the woman “showed the first signs of regret” and assured her that she would not tell anyone about the encounter.

Hegseth’s attorney said payments were made to the woman in a confidential settlement several years after the police investigation because Hegseth feared she was ready to file a lawsuit that he feared could result in him being fired from Fox News, where he was a popular host . The lawyer did not want to disclose the amount of the payment.

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