(21 Nov 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Washington – 21 November
++STARTS ON A SOUNDBITE++
1. SOUNDBITE (English) Pete Hegseth, Nominated for Defense Secretary:
"The President of United States has given me an amazing, humbling opportunity to be nominated to lead the Department of Defense. It’s an incredible opportunity today, and I do not take it lightly. I want to thank the vice president, who spent the morning with me. He was senator of the United States. We take very seriously the advice and consent role of the U.S. Senate. As we look forward to engaging in that process between absolutely nothing for granted and we welcome the opportunity to talk to any senator that wants to talk to us.
(Reporter: Didn’t you sexually assault woman in Monterey, California?)
As far as the media is concerned, I’ll put it very simple. The matter was fully investigated and I was completely cleared. And that’s where I’m going to leave it. Thank you.
(Reporter: How do you address concerns about your lack of Pentagon experience?)
++SHOT CONTINUES++
2. Hegseth walks away from reporters
STORYLINE:
Pete Hegseth, picked by President-elect Donald Trump to become Secretary of Defense, visited Capitol Hill to meet with senators Thursday.
A woman told police that she was sexually assaulted in 2017 by Pete Hegseth after he took her phone, blocked the door to a California hotel room and refused to let her leave, according to a detailed investigative report made public late Wednesday.
Hegseth, a former Fox News personality and President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be defense secretary, told police at the time that the encounter had been consensual and denied any wrongdoing, the report said.
News of the allegations surfaced last week when local officials released a brief statement confirming that a woman had accused Hegseth of sexual assault in October 2017 after he had spoken at a Republican women’s event in Monterey.
Hegseth’s lawyer, Timothy Palatore, said in a statement that the police report confirms “what I have said all along that the incident was fully investigated and police found the allegations to be false, which is why no charges were filed.”
Hegseth paid the woman in 2023 as part of a confidential settlement to head off the threat of what he described as a baseless lawsuit, Palatore has said.
The 22-page police report was released in response to a public records request and offers the first detailed account of what the woman alleged to have transpired — one that is at odds with Hegseth’s version of events. The report cited police interviews with the alleged victim, a nurse who treated her, a hotel staffer, another woman at the event and Hegseth.
The woman’s name was not 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 attorneys have said all along: the incident was fully investigated and no charges were filed because police found the allegations to be false.”
The report does not say that police found the allegations were false. Police recommended the case report be forwarded to the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office for review.
Police collected the unwashed dress and underwear she had worn that night, the report said.
After the event, the woman and others attended an after-party in a hotel suite where she said she confronted Hegseth, telling him that she “did not appreciate how he treated women,” the report states.
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