Hegseth Told Senator He Paid $50K to Sexual Assault Accuser

Pete Hegseth, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Pentagon, admitted to paying $50,000 to a woman who accused him of sexual assault in 2017, according to answers provided as part of his confirmation process and obtained by The Associated Press.

Hegseth confirmed the payment in his answers to Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who had additional questions for him under the vetting process.

The revelation came just hours after Hegseth inched closer to securing the Secretary of Defense job, following the Senate’s advancement of his nomination.

A 22-page police report that surfaced last year detailed a woman’s allegations that Hegseth sexually assaulted her in a California hotel room in 2017.

Hegseth told police at the time that the incident was consensual. He was not charged.

Hegseth’s lawyer Timothy Parlatore previously said his client paid the woman a settlement, but the attorney declined to comment on the $50,000 figure reported by the AP on Thursday.

According to the police report on the 2017 encounter, the woman and Hegseth were both at the Hyatt Hotel in Monterey to attend a meeting of the California Federation of Republican Women.

Both of them went to the after-party, where the woman said she called out Hegseth for his inappropriate behavior around women.

The woman believed that something had been “slipped into her drink” because her “fuzzy” memory made it difficult to recall how she ended up with Hegseth in a hotel room, where the assault allegedly occurred.

In Hegseth’s version of events, he met the woman at a bar and she led him back to his hotel room, where they supposedly had a consensual sexual encounter.

Hegseth told police at the time that he asked the woman repeatedly if she was comfortable. He also said he told her they could stop if she did not want to keep going without a condom.

The former Fox News personality has been embroiled in controversy since Trump nominated him as Secretary of Defense.

Hegseth has been accused of having an alcohol abuse problem and making his second wife fear for her safety. He was also hammered on his infidelity at his confirmation hearing.

Despite the numerous allegations, senators voted 51-49 to advance Hegseth to a final confirmation vote, which is scheduled for Friday.

All Democrats voted against the nominee, along with Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, who were the only Republicans to break from Trump.

“The leader of the Department of Defense must demonstrate and model the standards of behavior and character we expect of all service members, and Mr. Hegseth’s nomination to the role poses significant concerns that I cannot overlook,” Murkowski said.