US President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be the next Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, He paid a woman in exchange for her silence about a case in which she accused him of sexual assault in 2017, during a conservative convention, according to what his team of lawyers confessed to The Washington Post.
However, the lawyers maintain in a statement to the newspaper that there was no sexual assault and that their relationship was consensualand explain the payment because if she had gone ahead with the complaint, it would have cost Hegseth his job.then a well-known commentator on the Fox TV network.
Last Friday, the Monterrey Police Department confirmed that Hegseth was indeed investigated in 2017 for a possible case of sexual assault. in a hotel in the Californian city where a meeting was being held of Republican women, but that information was closed without knowing the reasons.
When three years later the woman threatened to report the case againHegseth then reached a confidentiality agreement for her to withdraw the complaint in exchange for a sum of money, according to what the team of lawyers told the Post, who have not revealed either the woman’s name or the amount that was paid.
But another source supports the version of sexual assault: A woman who claims to be a friend of the victim sent a letter this week – to which the Post had access – to the Trump transition team in which she points out in abundant detail that her friend, who was then 30 years old and belonged to a group of conservative activists, was raped by Hegseth in the latter’s room. The friend accompanied her in that forum and had known her for 15 years.
Until now, Trump maintains his support for Hegseth and maintains his innocenceAs one of the transition team’s spokespersons, Steven Cheung, said this week: “President Trump is appointing high-level and extremely competent candidates. Mr. Hegseth has adamantly denied each and every accusation, and they did not come forward complaints”.
Hegseth is the second nominee of the future president to face sexual accusations.
Matt Gaetz, controversial candidate for attorney general, was accused of sex trafficking of a minor and investigated for it by the House Ethics Committee, as well as for drug use.
