Police report reveals assault allegations against Hegse…

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (AP) — A woman told police she was sexually assaulted in 2017 by Pete Hegseth after he took her phone, locked the door to a California hotel room and refused to let her leave, according to a detailed investigation report. made public Wednesday evening.

Hegseth, a former Fox News personality and President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be defense secretary, told police at the time that the meeting was consensual and denied any wrongdoing, the report said.

News about the allegations emerged last week when local officials released a brief statement confirming that a woman accused Hegseth of sexual assault in October 2017 after he spoke at an event for Republican Women in Monterey.

Hegseth’s attorney, Timothy Palatore, said in a statement that the police report confirms “what we have 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.”

Hegseth paid the woman in 2023, as part of a confidentiality agreement, to go away the threat of what he described as a baseless lawsuit, Palatore said.

The 22-page police report was released in response to a public records request and provides the first detailed account of what the woman alleged happened — one that contradicts Hegseth’s version of events. The report cited police interviews with the alleged victim, a 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 name people who say they have been sexually assaulted.

A spokeswoman for the Trump transition said early Thursday that “the report corroborates what Mr. Hegseth’s lawyers have said all along: The incident was fully investigated and no charges were filed because the police found the allegations to be false.”

The report does not say that police found the allegations to be false. Police recommended that the case report be forwarded to the Monterey County Prosecutor’s Office for review.

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 staff that she believed she had been assaulted five days earlier, but did not remember much of what happened. She reported that she may have slipped something into her drink before arriving at the hotel room where she said the attack took place.

Police collected the dress and unwashed underwear she had worn that night, the report said.

The woman’s partner, who was staying with her at the hotel, told police he was worried about her that night after she never returned to their room. At 2 in the morning, he went to the hotel bar, but she was not there. She returned a few hours later, apologizing that she “must have fallen asleep.” A few days later, she told him that she had been sexually assaulted.

The woman, who helped organize the California Republican Women’s Federation meeting at which Hegseth spoke, told police she witnessed the TV host acting inappropriately throughout the night and saw him fondle several women’s thighs. According to the report, she texted a friend that Hegseth was giving off a “creeper” vibe.

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

A group of people, including Hegseth and the woman, went to the hotel bar. That’s when “things got fuzzy,” the woman told police.

She recalled drinking at the bar with Hegseth and others, the police report said. She also told police she got into an argument with Hegseth by the hotel pool, an account supported by a hotel employee who was dispatched to deal with the disturbance and spoke to police, according to the report.

A short time later, she told police, she was in a hotel room with Hegseth, who took her phone and blocked the door with her body so she couldn’t leave, according to the report. She also told police she remembers “saying ‘no’ a lot,” the report said.

Her next memory was lying on a couch or bed with a bare-chested Hegseth hovering over her, his tags hanging, the report said. Hegseth served in the National Guard, reaching the rank of major.

After Hegseth finished, she recalled throwing a towel at her and asking if she was “OK,” the report states. She told police she did not remember how she got back to her hotel room and has suffered from nightmares and memory loss ever since.

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 having a child with a Fox News producer, who is now his third wife, according to court records and Hegseth’s social media posts. His first marriage ended in 2009, also after Hegseth’s infidelity, 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 no liquor, and admitted to being “high” 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 ensuing sexual encounter was consensual, adding that he explicitly asked several times if she was comfortable. Hegseth said in the morning that the woman “showed early signs of remorse” and assured her that she would not tell anyone about the meeting.

Hegseth’s lawyer said a payment was made to the woman as part of a confidentiality agreement several years after the police investigation because Hegseth was concerned she was preparing to file a lawsuit he feared could have led to his dismissal from at Fox News, where he was a popular host. The lawyer did not disclose the amount of the payment.

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Slodysko reported from Washington and Linderman from Baltimore.