Fox News anchor Pete Hegseth’s attorney claims the woman Hegseth allegedly assaulted in California in 2017 was actually “the aggressor” and he only paid the woman off to avoid getting fired.
Hegseth’s attorney Tim Parlatore told Breitbart News the woman had dragged a drunken Hegseth to her room after a Republican conference in Monterey, California. He also suggested the woman violated him and claimed police threatened to charge her for coming forward, though he offered the outlet no evidence to support his claim. Police have not confirmed Parlatore’s assertions, and Hegseth has not been charged.
The candid accusation mirrored Parlatore’s comments to The Washington Post on Saturday, which broke the news that Hegseth paid the woman to protect his job. Hegseth co-anchored Fox & Friends Weekend and resigned after Trump nominated him for secretary of defense.
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“He is completely and totally innocent,” Parlatore told Breitbart. “It was completely investigated. She was the aggressor.”
Parlatore claimed the woman was sober and walked with Hegseth “arm in arm” to his hotel room “and really putting it on.”
“And she gets him into his room,” he said. “And then the police honestly, when they looked at it, even though she was the one that reported it, when they looked at the video, they considered charging her.”
“But that didn’t go anywhere, because obviously Pete’s not gonna sit there and say, ‘I was raped,’” Parlatore added.
Parlatore, a former Trump attorney, admitted to the Post on Saturday Hegseth paid the woman after she came forward with legal threats in 2020, though only because he was afraid Fox News would fire him—and after he sent her a cease and desist letter.
The Army veteran’s attorney also told Breitbart he suspected a member of President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team of leaking details of the incident to try and tank his nomination, though he offered no details on who that would be. Trump’s incoming communications director, Steven Cheung, praised Hegseth as one of Trump’s “high-caliber and extremely qualified” nominees.
“We look forward to his confirmation as United States Secretary of Defense so he can get started on Day One to Make America Safe and Great Again,” he wrote.
