Police report details alleged sexual assault by Trump defense attorney Pete Hegseth

A woman told police that Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for defense secretary, took her phone and locked her out of her hotel room before sexually assaulting her in 2017 after a Republican women’s convention in California, according to a official official records of a police investigation released Wednesday evening.

Documents released by the Monterey Police Department say the woman, identified only as “Jane Doe,” did not remember much about the Oct. 7, 2017, incident and believed some form of drug may have been slipped into her drink. an emergency room nurse said a few days later.

Hegseth has not been charged and denies any wrongdoing. His attorney, Timothy Parlatore, said the report’s description of surveillance footage at the Monterey Hotel, where the woman met Hegseth, and police interviews with other people at the hotel prove his innocence.

“This police report confirms what I’ve been saying all along,” Parlatore told NBC News on Thursday. “The incident was fully investigated and police found the allegation to be false, which is why no charges have been laid.”

Police have not given a reason for not charging him. The report says surveillance footage shows the woman, Hegseth and an unknown woman entering the hotel lobby together and heading to the bar around midnight. Another video shows the two walking together arm in arm shortly after 1 a.m., the report said.

At least three people told police the woman appeared coherent and unintoxicated throughout the night and early morning, according to the report.

The allegations emerged last weekend when Hegseth confirmed he had done it paid an undisclosed amount as part of a deal with his accuser. In an earlier statement, Parlatore said that “Hegseth felt strongly that she was the victim of blackmail and innocent collateral damage in a lie that the plaintiff kept to keep his marriage intact.”

Parlatore said Hegseth “ultimately decided to take a settlement for a significantly reduced amount” at “the height of the MeToo movement.”

Trump’s transition team did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment on the report’s release. In a statement last week, Trump’s communications director, Steven Cheung, said Hegseth “vehemently denied any allegations” and that Trump “nominates high caliber and highly qualified candidates to serve in his administration.” .

Hegseth, a former Fox News anchor, is one of the three high-profile elections to join Trump’s new cabinet, which has faced serious allegations of sexual impropriety.

The unidentified woman, who later went to a hospital for a sexual assault exam, confronted Hegseth, a guest speaker at the event, because she “didn’t appreciate the way he treated women,” the report said.

The woman said she drank a “small amount of champagne” at an after party but did not remember drinking “hard alcohol”. She and a group of other women went to a bar near the hotel where she had more to drink, while Hegseth was also allegedly present.

“That’s when things got blurry,” she told police. When she left the bar, she said Hegseth followed her, she assumed because of their previous argument, according to the report. She told police she remembered Hegseth saying he was a “nice guy.”

The woman said she then woke up in an unfamiliar room. She told police that Hegseth asked who she was texting and took the phone from her before physically blocking her attempt to leave the room.

“JANE DOE recalled saying ‘no’ a lot,” the report said. “JANE DOE’s next memory was of her being on a bed or sofa and HEGSETH was on top of her.”

She said his tags were floating over her face and he was bare chested.

She told police he ejaculated on her stomach, before throwing in a towel and asking, “Are you okay?”

The woman said she did not remember how she got back to her hotel room, which she shared with her husband, and that she did not realize the alleged encounter with Hegseth until after she returned home. Four days later, she went to the hospital for an exam, the report said.

Investigators were alerted to the alleged assault by an emergency room nurse who treated the accuser on October 12, 2017. The nurse said the patient wanted to be identified as Jane Doe and wanted a sexual assault exam.

The patient said she did not remember “most of the events of the night,” including whether any sexual penetration took place, the police nurse said. The woman told the nurse she thought “something may have slipped into her drink” and that she was sexually assaulted, but did not want to release the suspect’s name, according to the report.

Investigators also interviewed the accusers, her husband, at least one woman who attended the convention, a hotel worker and Hegseth.

In a phone interview on October 26, 2017, Hegseth told police after the event that he had sex with the woman in his hotel room, but that it was consensual and that he made sure she was comfortable with what was happening .

He said he didn’t plan to have sex with her and that he “thought it was weird” that she stayed in his room, according to the police report. “He sat down in the room and did not leave,” the report said.

Hegseth told police he and the woman would stop and say “we shouldn’t be doing that,” even though they continued each other, according to the report.

Afterward, Hegseth said, the woman said she was going to tell her husband that she fell asleep on a couch in someone else’s room. She showed “early signs of regret,” Hegseth said, though he did not elaborate on what those signs were.

When the woman returned to her hotel room around 4 a.m., she apologized and told her husband she “must have fallen asleep,” he told police. He said she “didn’t have a hard time walking and didn’t slur her words,” according to the report.

A hotel employee told police that Hegseth “was very intoxicated” but the woman was not and that she was “sitting alone and very coherent.”

A woman who was at the bar with them told police the accuser had a glass of champagne and some vodka at the after-party and at least one alcoholic drink at the bar, but she was coherent and did not appear intoxicated. The woman said the accuser appeared to be flirting with Hegseth by touching her body or arm, the report said.

On Thursday, Hegseth told reporters on the Hill after meeting with senators that he is looking forward to getting down to the confirmation process and is not taking anything for granted.

Asked if he sexually assaulted a woman in Monterrey, Hegseth said: “As far as the media is concerned, I’ll keep it very simple. The matter has been fully investigated and I have been given the all clear and I will leave it at that.”