Photo by Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons
Pete Hegseth
Pete Hegseth
Disturbing new details have emerged in a police report on sexual assault allegations against Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Defense.
The city attorney’s office of Monterey, California, released the 22-page report Wednesday night in response to a public records request that provides competing narratives about the Oct. 8, 2017, encounter between former Fox News host Pete Hegseth and the California woman, identified by investigators as “Jane Doe,” after he spoke at a convention, reported CNN.
“Both Doe and Hegseth, as well as several attendees interviewed by police, told officers that the two of them went with a group to the hotel bar, Knuckles, after the speech and an afterparty in a hotel suite,” CNN reported. “There, a conference attendee told police that Hegseth had touched her knee and invited her to come to his hotel room. The attendee said she declined the invitation and ‘gained the attention’ of Doe and had her become what the report describes as a ‘crotch blocker’—hoping that Doe’s ‘presence would detour Hegseth’s attempt to have sex’ with her. That attendee later left the bar and said Doe didn’t appear intoxicated ‘when she last had contact with’ her.”
‘Acting Inappropriately’
Another attendee told police that she saw Doe and another woman appearing to flirt with Hegseth at the bar, but she said Doe did not appear to be heavily intoxicated at that point, but the accuser later told police that she later felt that she may have been drugged.
“Doe told officers that she believed Hegseth was acting inappropriately with the other women during the conference, and texted someone that he ‘was giving off a creeper vibe,’ according to the report,” CNN reported. “Doe later told a hospital nurse that she ‘was not sure but believes that something may have been slipped into her drink, as she cannot remember most of the night’s events,’ and the nurse passed that on to police, the report states. The report also notes Doe said she had been drinking ‘much more than normal’ that day.”
Surveillance video from the hotel showed Doe and Hegseth walking toward the hotel pool at 1:15 a.m. with their “arms locked together,” police said, and Doe later told police that she confronted him about his behavior toward women at the conference, but Hegseth insisted he was a “nice guy.”
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“Police also interviewed a hotel employee, who responded to guest complaints about the argument around 1:30 a.m. Hegseth told the employee ‘that he had freedom of speech,’ before he and Doe left, the employee remembered,” CNN reported. “The employee said that Hegseth appeared to be heavily intoxicated, while Doe did not, according to the [police] report.”
Doe told investigators that the next thing she remembered after the argument was being in a hotel room with Hegseth.
“She told officers that Hegseth ‘took her phone from her hands,’” CNN reported. “Then, she said, she ‘tried to leave the room, but Hegseth blocked the door with his body.’ She said she ‘remembered saying no a lot,’ but did not remember much else, according to the report.”
Dog Tags Hovering
She recalled Hegseth over her on a bed or couch, with his dog tags “hovering over her face,” and while she couldn't recall whether sexual penetration occurred, she told a nurse she believed he sexually assaulted her.
“Doe told officers that ‘the incident involving Hegseth did not dawn on’ her until after she returned home,” CNN reported. “She went to a hospital and reported a sexual assault on October 12, where she underwent a rape kit exam and gave the clothes she was wearing on the night of the alleged assault to police. A nurse at the hospital first reported the alleged assault to authorities.”
Hegseth later told police that he was surprised that Doe, whose husband also attended the conference, sat down and stayed in his hotel room, but he claimed that he repeatedly made sure she was “comfortable with what was going on between the two of them” and said they had consensual sexual intercourse.
“After they had sex, Hegseth said, he had a ‘very clear conversation’ with Doe, who told him she would tell her husband she had ‘fallen asleep on a couch in someone else’s room,’” CNN reported. “He told police that she showed ‘early signs of regret,’ but did not elaborate.”
