SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (AP) — A woman told police that she was sexually assaulted in 2017 by Pete Hegseth after he took her phone, blocked the door to a California hotel room and refused to let her leave, according to a detailed investigative report made public late Wednesday.
Hegseth, a former Fox News personality and President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be defense secretary, told police at the time that the encounter had been consensual and denied any wrongdoing, the report said.
News of the allegations released a brief statement confirming that a woman had accused Hegseth of sexual assault in October 2017 after he had spoken at a Republican women’s event in Monterey.
“The matter was fully investigated and I was completely cleared,†Hegseth told reporters Thursday at the Capitol, where he was meeting with senators to build support for his nomination.
The report does not say that police found the allegations were false. Police recommended the case report be forwarded to the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office for review.
Monterey County District Attorney Jeannine M. Pacioni said Thursday that her office declined to file charges in January of 2018 because they didn't have “proof beyond a reasonable doubt.â€
Tim Palatore, Hegseth’s attorney, has said the woman who made the allegations was paid an undisclosed sum the threat of what he described as a baseless lawsuit.
The in response to a public records request and offers the first detailed account of what the woman alleged to have transpired — one that is at odds with Hegseth’s version of events. The report cited police interviews with the alleged victim, a nurse who treated her, a hotel staffer, another woman at the event and Hegseth.
The woman’s name was not released, and The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been sexually assaulted.
A spokeswoman for the Trump transition said Thursday that the “report corroborates†what Hegseth’s legal team has been saying “all along.â€
Investigators were first alerted to the alleged assault, the report said, by a nurse who called them after a patient requested a sexual assault exam. The patient told medical personnel she believed she was assaulted five days earlier but couldn’t remember much about what had happened. She reported something may have been slipped into her drink before ending up in the hotel room where she said the assault occurred.
Police collected the unwashed dress and underwear she had worn that night, the report said.
The woman’s partner, who was staying at the hotel with her, told police that he was worried about her that night after she didn’t come back to their room. At 2 a.m., he went to the hotel bar, but she wasn’t there. She made it back a few hours later, apologizing that she “must have fallen asleep.†A few days later, she told him she had been sexually assaulted.
The woman, who helped organize the California Federation of Republican Women gathering at which Hegseth spoke, told police that she had witnessed the TV anchor acting inappropriately throughout the night and saw him stroking multiple women’s thighs. She texted a friend that Hegseth was giving off a “creeper†vibe, according to the report.
After the event, the woman and others attended an after-party in a hotel suite where she said she confronted Hegseth, telling him that she “did not appreciate how he treated women,†the report states.
A group of people, including Hegseth and the woman, decamped for the hotel’s bar. That’s when “things got fuzzy,†the woman told police.
She remembered having a drink at the bar with Hegseth and others, the police report states. She also told police that she argued with Hegseth near the hotel pool, an account that is supported by a hotel staffer who was sent to handle the disturbance and spoke to police, according to the report.
Soon, she told police, she was inside a hotel room with Hegseth, who took her phone and blocked the door with his body so that she could not leave, according to the report. She also told police she remembered “saying ‘no’ a lot,†the report said.
Her next memory was of lying on a couch or bed with a bare-chested Hegseth hovering over her, his dog tags dangling, the report states. Hegseth served in the National Guard, rising to the rank of major.
After Hegseth finished, she recalled he threw a towel at her and asked if she was “OK,†the report states. She told police she did not recall how she got back to her own hotel room and had since suffered from nightmares and memory loss.
At the time of the alleged assault, Hegseth, now 44, was going through a divorce with his second wife, with whom he has three children. She filed for divorce after he had a child with a Fox News producer who is now his third wife, according to court records and social media posts by Hegseth. His first marriage ended in 2009, also after infidelity by Hegseth, according to court records.
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 attended an after party and drank beer but did not consume liquor, and acknowledged being “buzzed†but not drunk.
He said he met the woman at the hotel bar, and she led him by the arm back to his hotel room, which surprised him because he initially had no intention of having sex with her, the report said.
Hegseth told investigators that the sexual encounter that followed was consensual, adding that he explicitly asked more than once if she was comfortable. Hegseth said in the morning the woman “showed early signs of regret,†and he assured her that he wouldn’t tell anyone about the encounter.
Hegseth’s attorney said a payment was made to the woman as part of a confidential settlement a few years after the police investigation because Hegseth was concerned that she was prepared to file a lawsuit that he feared could have resulted in him being fired from Fox News, where he was a popular host. The attorney would not reveal the amount of the payment.
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Slodysko reported from Washington and Linderman from Baltimore.
