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Politics|Police Report Offers Graphic Details of Sexual Assault Claim Against Hegseth
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/20/us/politics/police-report-sexual-assault-claim-hegseth.html
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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.
- Nov. 20, 2024
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 woman who made the accusations 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 the hotel room door when she tried to leave, and sexually assaulted her, ejaculating on her stomach. She said 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 and told her that they could stop if it was a problem that he did not have 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.
