Host Pete Hegseth throughout “FOX & Friends” at Fox News Channel Studios on May 27, 2022 in New York City.
Roy Rochlin|Getty Images
Former Fox News host Pete Hegseth’s lawyer on Sunday validated to NBC News that Hegseth, whom President- choose Donald Trump has actually called as his prospect for protection assistant, paid a female a concealed quantity after she implicated him of sexual offense.
“In 2023, Hegseth paid the complainant as part of a civil confidential settlement agreement and maintains his innocence,” Timothy Parlatore, Hegseth’s lawyer, stated in a declaration.
He additionally refuted that the experience in between Hegseth and an unrevealed lady, which she affirms taken place in 2017, was sexual offense.
Parlatore’s declaration follows The Washington Post on Saturday reported that a friend of Hegseth’s accuser sent a memo to the Trump change group outlining the accusations.
NBC News has actually not individually examined the memorandum, however Parlatore validated that it belongs to an experience Hegseth and the unrevealed lady had in Monterey, California, throughout a seminar of the California Federation of Republican Women.
The Post reported that the memorandum stated the lady went to the seminar with her partner and her kids and “didn’t remember anything until she was in Hegseth’s hotel room and then stumbling to find her hotel room” on the evening concerned.
Parlatore refuted the accusation, stating, “This is a situation where a consensual encounter occurred and, unfortunately, the woman had to come up with a lie to explain why the woman had not come back to her husband’s room that night.”
“It wasn’t reported until days later until there was pressure from her husband. It was fully investigated by police and video surveillance as well as multiple eyewitness statements show that she was the aggressor,” he included.
Authorities in Monterey explored the accusation in 2017 and did not submit costs versus Hegseth.
Parlatore additionally called his customer “completely innocent” and implicated the lady of “trying to squeeze Mr. Hegseth for money.”
Before Hegseth formally comes to be protection assistant, he’ll need to sway a bulk of the Senate in a verification ballot.
On Sunday,Sen Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla, informed NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that “I think he’s a good pick.”
Still, he included that the Senate would certainly need to ponder and assess Hegseth’s document in advance of a ballot.
“But once again, as allegations come out, we’ll figure out if, as the Senate moves forward with the advice and consent to the president of the United States and doing our constitutional duties, we’ll figure out if he can get confirmed or not. And I do think that Pete’s a good pick for this position,” Mullin stated.
