Trump team weighs Pentagon pick after sexual assault allegation surfaces!

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CPT (retired, USA) Pete Hegseth


Senior officials on President-elect Donald Trump's transition team on Friday weighed the future of Pete Hegseth, Trump's choice to lead the Defense Department, amid new revelations that police investigated an allegation that he sexually assaulted a woman in 2017.

The internal turmoil over Hegseth's future was sparked by a complaint shared with the transition team with extensive information about a woman's claim that Hegseth assaulted her in a hotel in Monterey, California, after a Republican conference, according to a person familiar with the complaint who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation. The woman who drafted the complaint said the alleged victim was a friend who later signed a nondisclosure agreement with Hegseth.

Monterey police confirmed that they investigated Hegseth over an allegation of "alleged sexual assault" in 2017 and that the incident did not result in criminal charges.

The transition team was caught by surprise by the detailed allegations and now fears more negative revelations about Hegseth, said the person familiar with the complaint. "There's a lot of frustration around this," the person said. "He hadn't been properly vetted."

The woman who drafted the complaint did not respond to requests for comment from The Washington Post.

Tim Parlatore, an attorney for Hegseth, said Friday that the assault allegation was "fully investigated and found not to be true." Asked whether Hegseth sought a nondisclosure agreement with the woman, Parlatore said that "there's no other skeletons to come out." He added, "There's no reason to withdraw that I'm aware of."

The president-elect was not told about the extent of the sexual misconduct allegation before he chose Hegseth as the Pentagon nominee because no private firm vetted him, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation.

Trump communications director Steven Cheung said in a statement that Trump is standing by Hegseth.

"President Trump is nominating high-caliber and extremely qualified candidates to serve in his Administration," Cheung said. "Mr. Hegseth has vigorously denied any and all accusations, and no charges were filed. We look forward to his confirmation as United States Secretary of Defense so he can get started on Day One to Make America Safe and Great Again."

The alleged incident is said to have occurred when Hegseth attended a California Federation of Republican Women conference in Monterey, and allegedly took place between just before midnight on Oct. 7, 2017, and 7 a.m. the following morning at the Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel and Spa, according to the police statement, first reported by Vanity Fair. The allegation to police was made Oct. 12, 2017, the report said.

The police statement did not provide any other details beyond noting that the complainant had a bruise on her right thigh and that there was no weapon or property involved.

The Post could find no reference in court files to the matter. The police statement does not disclose the complainant's name, citing her identity and age as "Confidential." The Post also generally does not name alleged victims of sexual assault.

A Facebook post by a group called Fresno Republican Women shows Hegseth speaking to GOP women in Monterey on the day of the alleged incident. "Pete Hegseth speaking to big Republican Women crowd in Monterey," the post says.

Shirley Mark, who was the president of the California Federation of Republican Women at the time, according to tax filings, said in a brief interview Thursday that she had heard something about the allegation but that she did not know the identity of the accuser and had no comment.

Hegseth has been married three times, according to court records. He married his first wife, Meredith, in his early 20s and they divorced in 2009, according to Minnesota court filings. The couple agreed that the reasons for the split were an "irretrievable breakdown" of the marriage and Hegseth's "infidelity," according to a filing in their divorce case. She declined to comment.

He married his second wife, Samantha, in 2010. Hegseth fathered a child with another woman, Jennifer Rauchet, then a Fox News producer, in August 2017, during that marriage. According to court records, Samantha Hegseth, who did not respond to a request for comment, filed for divorce in September — a month after the child was born. Following his second divorce, Hegseth married Rauchet.

Hegseth is one of several Trump Cabinet picks who could face resistance in the Senate. His selection caught many by surprise. The Fox News host, who served in the Army National Guard, has echoed Trump's complaints that the military is too "woke" and, during Trump's first term, successfully encouraged the president to pardon Army officers accused of war crimes over objections from the Pentagon.

Trump's team began formally vetting Hegseth after Trump called him Nov. 7 to ask whether he was interested in becoming defense secretary, a person familiar with the conversations told The Post, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss private meetings.

Trump's pick for attorney general, Matt Gaetz, also faces renewed scrutiny of sexual misconduct allegations ahead of a potentially contentious confirmation fight. The Justice Department last year dropped an investigation into allegations that Gaetz violated sex trafficking laws in a case involving a 17-year-old girl, but the House Ethics Committee has been reviewing the matter more recently and was about to vote on releasing a report when Gaetz resigned from Congress this week — just after Trump's decision to tap him for attorney general. Gaetz has denied wrongdoing.

The president-elect himself has also been accused over the years of sexual harassment and assault — allegations he denies. The jury in a civil trial last year found Trump liable for sexual abuse of the writer E. Jean Carroll and ordered him to pay damages.

(OP comment: I was never a Hegseth fan. The guy alerted my spidey senses.)


 
adjusterjack said:
Let's disqualify all politicians who have sexually abused women.

Oh, wait, then there would be no more politicians.
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At the moment that wouldn't be possible.

It might be a consideration in the future.

However, I trust Joe and Jane Citizen to use their vote to ensure sexual deviants don't get elected to political office.
 
How do you sexual abuse a hooker, stripper or woman of the night?

I am not sure if I buy that, they all have done it the ones who love women. Also the closeted married ones who prefer the same sex. They never mention them though.

I am sure Tom Cotton and Lindsey Graham are some examples.
 
Gee, another presidential appointee who doesn't come clean with the president's team that vets the appointee and ends up causing embarrassment for the president. This is a very old problem that has bedeviled many administrations, and with the ease of getting information off the internet it'll occur more often unless the teams that vet the appointees scour every information source out there to check that potential appointees don't have as yet undiscovered skeletons in their closet. The appointee hiding the problem also indicates that the person isn't trustworthy as they failed to disclose everything asked of them by the president's team. That trust problem alone should cause any president to pull the person from nomination.

This isn't a problem I'll pin specifically on Trump. He's not the only president to have ever been caught by surprise by this kind of thing. Like any president he goes with the information he's given when making appointments, and if the potential nominee lies to the president and his team the blame for that is on that nominee and on his team vetting the nominee if the team didn't do at least the standard kind of checks that ought to be done.
 
Tax Counsel said:
Gee, another presidential appointee who doesn't come clean with the president's team that vets the appointee and ends up causing embarrassment for the president. This is a very old problem that has bedeviled many administrations, and with the ease of getting information off the internet it'll occur more often unless the teams that vet the appointees scour every information source out there to check that potential appointees don't have as yet undiscovered skeletons in their closet. The appointee hiding the problem also indicates that the person isn't trustworthy as they failed to disclose everything asked of them by the president's team. That trust problem alone should cause any president to pull the person from nomination.

This isn't a problem I'll pin specifically on Trump. He's not the only president to have ever been caught by surprise by this kind of thing. Like any president he goes with the information he's given when making appointments, and if the potential nominee lies to the president and his team the blame for that is on that nominee and on his team vetting the nominee if the team didn't do at least the standard kind of checks that ought to be done.
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For this nominee (Gaetz), I'd have to say that no vetting would have been required beyond having at least a basic understanding of what's going on around them. There was nothing to be surprised by - it's been out in the open quite some time.
Generally, though, I agree.
 
Dangit - I can't delete or edit in this thread. Disregard my prior post.
 
Zigner said:
What a vile, disgusting thing to say.
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Is it as Vile and disgusting as a satanic worshiping democrat? For you see, Obama had his lover chef drown so he couldn't talk. Also, all those report incidents of Obama cross dressing and his gay lovers. None saw the light of day, due to the leftest media love fest.,

Hopefully the Obama democrats slither off to the pit of hell where they belong. Even Bil Clinton said if Hillary was the nominee instead of the leftest CIA created Kenyan then she would have been President not Husein Obama.
 
Redemptionman said:
For you see, Obama had his lover chef drown so he couldn't talk. Also, all those report incidents of Obama cross dressing and his gay lovers. None saw the light of day, due to the leftest media love fest.,
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LOL, you really need to stop watching those far right channels and come up for air once in awhile and take a reality check. There is absolutely no credibe evidence of any of that. It's just more of the outrageous claims the far right used to discredit Obama among those in the population who don't know any better. Just because someone on some right wing streaming outlet says it's true doesn't make it so. The same thing with some of the far left attacks against Trump. Both sides know and are frequent users of that kind of tactic. Sure, it's cheap, dishonest, and underhanded but they keep doing it because it still works and no one ever holds them to account in any meaningful way. Why talk about things that really matter, like the issues, when you can instead just try ripping the opposing candidate with defamatory remarks?

Redemptionman said:
Even Bil Clinton said if Hillary was the nominee instead of the leftest CIA created Kenyan then she would have been President not Husein Obama.
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Well, of course Clinton said that! What else would he say? That his wife is a loser? Yeah, that would have gone over well in the Clinton household. We will never know if Hilary Clinton would have beaten John McCain had she been the nominee. But what does your rambling about Clinton and Obama have to do with the issue of Trump's nominees for cabinet posts? Exactly nothing. Bill, Hilary, and Barack have nothing to do with any of that. Nice try at diversion when you've got nothing substantive to add.
 
Zigner said:
For this nominee (Gaetz), I'd have to say that no vetting would have been required beyond having at least a basic understanding of what's going on around them.
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Gaetz is a poor choice for Attorney General, and reports I've read indicate that Trump knows it and knows he'd not likely get 51 votes to confirm him in the Senate. He's getting resistance on this nomination from some Republican senators. Supposedly he's trying lower the bar for cabinet positions to help get other candidates through the Senate. Basically, the idea is that they can say to the senators that at least his other picks aren't as bad as Gaetz. Trump had to know Gaetz would be a problem if for no other reason than Gaetz has alienated some Republican colleagues on the Hill and they'd be happy to ensure that he doesn't get the job.
 
Tax Counsel said:
LOL, you really need to stop watching those far right channels and come up for air once in awhile and take a reality check. There is absolutely no credibe evidence of any of that. It's just more of the outrageous claims the far right used to discredit Obama among those in the population who don't know any better. Just because someone on some right wing streaming outlet says it's true doesn't make it so. The same thing with some of the far left attacks against Trump. Both sides know and are frequent users of that kind of tactic. Sure, it's cheap, dishonest, and underhanded but they keep doing it because it still works and no one ever holds them to account in any meaningful way. Why talk about things that really matter, like the issues, when you can instead just try ripping the opposing candidate with defamatory remarks?



Well, of course Clinton said that! What else would he say? That his wife is a loser? Yeah, that would have gone over well in the Clinton household. We will never know if Hilary Clinton would have beaten John McCain had she been the nominee. But what does your rambling about Clinton and Obama have to do with the issue of Trump's nominees for cabinet posts? Exactly nothing. Bill, Hilary, and Barack have nothing to do with any of that. Nice try at diversion when you've got nothing substantive to add.
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We will never know will we, but we are expected to believe the chef drowned in 4 foot of water when he is very in shape and an athlete. I see you by into that great narrative of the leftest loons. Have you already changed your party affiliation? You obviously are a leftest loon anti trumper.
 

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