Police Report Offers Graphic Details of Sexual Assault Claim Against Hegseth

Police Report Offers Graphic Details of Sexual Assault Claim Against Hegseth

President-elect Donald J. Trump’s choice for defense secretary was never charged with a crime and vehemently denied to the police that a sexual encounter was coerced.

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By Sharon LaFraniere

Sharon LaFraniere, who has been reporting on President-elect Donald J. Trump’s selections for cabinet positions, welcomes tips at nytimes.com/tips. She reported from Washington.

A police report released Wednesday night provided graphic details about a sexual assault accusation against Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald J. Trump’s pick for defense secretary.

The report also documents Mr. Hegseth’s vehement denials that he coerced the complainant into a sexual encounter at a Monterey, Calif., political conference seven years ago. Mr. Hegseth was never charged with a crime.

According to the report, the woman, whose name was withheld, told the police that she ended up in Mr. Hegseth’s hotel room after he spoke at the conference in October 2017 hosted by the California Federation of Republican Women at the Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel and Spa.

The woman, referred to throughout the report as Jane Doe, said Mr. Hegseth took her phone, blocked his hotel room door when she tried to leave, and sexually assaulted her, ejaculating on her stomach. She said that her memory was hazy, and that she had drunk far more alcohol than usual throughout the day.

Mr. Hegseth told the police that he repeatedly sought the woman’s consent for sex, making sure “she was comfortable with what was going on,” including the fact he was not using a condom. Video footage at the hotel earlier that evening showed them at one point leaving a hotel bar with their arms locked together, the report said.

Mr. Hegseth said that he believed the woman led him to his room, and that he had no plans to have sex with her, the report said. “He might have thought that with someone else, but not Jane Doe,” it said.

The woman’s allegation, the outlines of which surfaced last week, have complicated Mr. Trump’s intention to have Mr. Hegseth lead the Defense Department next year.

Mr. Hegseth’s lawyer said Sunday that his client had paid the woman an undisclosed amount after she threatened to file a lawsuit against Mr. Hegseth in 2020 simply because he feared he might lose his job as a Fox News anchor if the allegation became public. Mr. Trump has told advisers that he is standing behind Mr. Hegseth, a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In an emailed response to the report, Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for Mr. Trump’s transition team, said it corroborated what Mr. Hegseth’s lawyers had maintained: that the incident was fully investigated and no charges were filed. The statement described Mr. Hegseth as a highly respected combat veteran and said Mr. Trump “knows Pete will honorably serve our country as the secretary of defense.”

The Monterey city attorney’s office released the police report in response to public information requests from news media organizations. The city attorney said that because the report had been released to Mr. Hegseth in March 2021, it was no longer private. The name of the complainant and others interviewed by the police were redacted.

The woman claimed she was introduced to Mr. Hegseth at the end of the conference. She told the police that she had observed him acting inappropriately, including rubbing women’s legs. In a text message, she told someone whose name was redacted that Mr. Hegseth “was giving off a ‘creeper’ vibe,” the report said.

She said she went with a group of women to the Knuckles Sports Bar, attached to the hotel, and “that’s when things got fuzzy.” Mr. Hegseth was also at the bar, and she said she told him that she did not like how he had treated women at the conference.

The woman told the police that she did not remember how many alcoholic drinks she had there, but recalled the bartender handing her a drink. She later told a hospital nurse that she believed that “something” might have been slipped into her drink, because her memory of the night’s events was so hazy.

One witness told the police that the complainant was flirting with Mr. Hegseth. But another woman told the police that Mr. Hegseth acted aggressively toward her, and that she hoped that the presence of the complainant would deter him. This other woman said Mr. Hegseth put his hand on her knee, and despite her objections, invited her back to his hotel room.

After leaving Knuckles, Mr. Hegseth and the complainant walked together to the pool. Video footage showed their arms were locked and she was smiling, the report said. Later, other hotel guests complained about a disturbance at the pool.

A hotel staff member said Mr. Hegseth was cursing, “very intoxicated” and insistent he was exercising his right to freedom of speech. The woman, who did not seem drunk, put her hand on Mr. Hegseth’s back and escorted him back into the hotel, the staff member said.

The complainant told authorities that she could not recall how she got to Mr. Hegseth’s hotel room or whether intercourse occurred. “Jane Doe remembered saying ‘no’ a lot,” the police report said. “Jane Doe stated that she didn’t remember much else.”

The woman told police that she remembered seeing Mr. Hegseth’s dog tags hanging around his neck as he was over her. After Mr. Hegseth ejaculated, she said, he told her to “clean it up,” and she found her way back to her hotel room.

Mr. Hegseth told the police that he was “buzzed” but not intoxicated that night. He said he did not remember the interaction with the hotel staff member. He said he found it “odd” that she remained there because he had no intention of having sex with her.

As the sexual encounter progressed, he told the police, there was “always” conversation. “He did not want Jane Doe to get in trouble,” the report said he told the police.

He said that the woman stated that she would tell her husband, who was also staying at the hotel, that she had fallen asleep on a couch in someone else’s room. Mr. Hegseth said he told the woman that she did not have to worry about him saying anything about the encounter and that she “showed early signs of regret.”

The complaint initially came from a Kaiser Permanente hospital that the woman visited four days after the sexual encounter, requesting a sexual assault examination. Because of the nature of the allegations, the attending nurse was required to report the visit to law enforcement authorities.

The police report described the alleged offense as “Rape: Victim unconscious of the nature of the act,” and recommended that the case be forwarded to the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office for review.

Orlando Mayorquín contributed reporting.