Graphic details of how a woman accused Donald Trump’s Pentagon nominee Pete Hegseth of sexually assaulting her have been revealed in a police report published hours before he meets key senators.
The 22-page report contains graphic details about the allegations about Hegseth made by the woman after a night in a California hotel room in 2017 which he has acknowledged involved them having sex just two months after his mistress gave birth to their child.
The alleged rape, as it was coded by police in the report, was first disclosed to Trump transition officials by a friend of the woman last week.
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In the report, released under freedom of information laws, the woman told an investigating officer she “remembered saying ‘no’ a lot” after Hegseth allegedly blocked the door and suspected something may have been slipped into her drink earlier in the evening.
Her next memory was of being on a bed or a couch with a shirtless Hegseth over her and his dog tags “hovering over her face.” She told an officer she recalled him ejaculating on her stomach and telling her to “clean it up.”
Hegseth told police at the time that the encounter was consensual and denied any wrongdoing. He was not charged.
Hegseth’s lawyer previously said that his client paid the woman a settlement in order to ward off a “baseless” lawsuit that would have damaged his then-career as a Fox News host.
The lawyer told Mediaite 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.”
President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team told the Associated Press that the report shows “the incident was fully investigated and no charges were filed because police found the allegations to be false.”
The police report—which refers to interviews with the alleged victim, with a nurse who gave her a sexual assault exam, a hotel employee, and another woman—reveals two conflicting versions of events.
The woman said that from Oct. 7 to Oct. 8, 2017, she stayed at a Hyatt Hotel in Monterey for a meeting of the California Federation of Republican Women, which she helped organize. Hegseth spoke at the event.
After the event, attendees, including the woman and Hegseth, went to an after-party in a hotel suite and later had drinks at a bar attached to the hotel.
The woman told police she saw Hegseth behaving improperly throughout the event, rubbing multiple women on their legs. According to the report, she said some women found Hegseth “dreamy” while she texted a friend that he was giving off the vibe of a “creeper.”
Two other women who spoke to police said Hegseth put his hand on their leg and asked if they would come back to his room. One of them said she told him the contact was “not acceptable.” She called over Hegseth’s alleged victim to act as a “crotch blocker,” basically a third wheel in the conversation whose presence would break up his sexual advances.
The alleged victim told police she recalled confronting Hegseth over the fact that she “did not appreciate how he treated women.” Hegseth did not recall any such exchange, but a hotel staffer told police he was called to handle a loud disturbance between the two that happened after 1 a.m. near the hotel pool.
The staffer said Hegseth, who he said seemed “very intoxicated,” began cursing and asserted that he had “freedom of speech.” The woman, he said, apologized and explained they were with the Republican event before escorting Hegseth away.
The woman said her memory covering the time after they were at the bar was “fuzzy,” which made her believe “something may have been slipped into her drink.”
She does not recall clearly how she ended up in a hotel room with Hegseth. Once there, she said, he took her phone and blocked her from leaving out the door and that she said “no” many times.
She recalled him being on top of her on a bed or couch as his dog tags dangled over her. Hegseth served in the National Guard.
According to the report, after Hegseth “ejaculated on her stomach,” she said he “threw a towel at her and asked her ‘are you ok?’”
The woman told an investigator she does not remember how she got back to her hotel room.
Her partner, who was staying with her, went to the hotel bar at 2 a.m., but didn’t find her there. She returned to their room hours later, apologizing for having fall asleep.
Days later, she told him she had been sexually assaulted.
Police were first made aware of the allegations when a nurse contacted them after the woman asked for a sexual assault exam. Law enforcement collected the unwashed dress and underwear she wore the night of the alleged incident, according to the report.
Hegseth’s account tells a different story.
He told police he attended the after-party and drank enough beer to be “buzzed” but not intoxicated. He said he consumed no hard alcohol.
Hegseth said he met the woman at the bar and that she led him back to his hotel room. He told police he initially did not intend to have sex with her and that their ensuing encounter was consensual.
Hegseth said he asked the woman a couple of times if she was comfortable. When she asked if he had a condom, Hegseth said he informed her that he did not and said they could stop if it was an issue.
She said it was not a problem, and Hegseth added “he did not want to get anyone pregnant.” (At the time, Hegseth was in divorce proceedings with his second wife after he fathered a child with his mistress, a Fox News producer to whom he is now married).
Hegseth said that, after their encounter, the woman “showed early signs of regret” and said she planned to tell her husband she fell asleep on a couch in someone’s room.
He assured her that “she did not have to worry about him saying anything.”
Hegseth was being guided round Capitol Hill Thursday by Vice-president Elect JD Vance in an effort to secure Republican votes for his confirmation.
