Donald Trump’s transition team scrambled Thursday after Trump’s incoming chief of staff Susie Wiles was presented with an allegation that former Fox & Friends cohost Pete Hegseth, Trump’s nominee to be Defense Secretary, had engaged in sexual misconduct. According to two sources, Wiles was briefed Wednesday night about an allegation that Hegseth had acted inappropriately with a woman. One of the sources said the alleged incident took place in Monterey, California in 2017.
According to the transition source, the allegation is serious enough that Wiles and Trump’s lawyers spoke to Hegseth about it on Thursday. A source with knowledge of the meeting said that Hegseth said the allegation stemmed from a consensual encounter and characterized the episode as he-said, she-said.
On Thursday evening, Hegseth’s lawyer Timothy Parlatore said: “This allegation was already investigated by the Monterey police department and they found no evidence for it.”
Trump’s communications director Steven Cheung said: “President Trump is nominating high-caliber and extremely qualified candidates to serve in his Administration. 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.”
Ahead of the Thursday meeting, one high-level MAGA member familiar with the allegation said Hegseth wasn’t properly scrutinized before Trump made the controversial pick. “He wasn’t vetted,” the source said. But the senior transition source disputed this. “Hegseth was vetted, but this alleged incident didn’t come up.”
Trump shocked the political and military worlds on November 12 when he nominated Hegseth to oversee the Pentagon. Hegseth likely already faces a bumpy road to Senate confirmation. The 44-year-old cable news personality and Army veteran has a history of making incendiary statements. Hegseth once called liberals “domestic enemies” who want “trans-lesbian black females [to] run everything!” In 2018, when he was a potential appointee to run the Department of Veterans Affairs, it was reported that he began an affair, and had a child with a Fox producer while still married to his second wife. He later married the producer.
One Hegseth ally blamed the surfacing of the sexual misconduct allegation on GOP establishment members who are trying to thwart Hegseth’s nomination. “They’ll try to kill all these nominations before the confirmation vote,” the ally said.