The attorney for Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump's defense secretary pick, told the New York Post on Sunday that the former Fox News host had to pay off an accuser during the #MeToo movement to keep her silent.
The unidentified woman accused Hegseth of sexual assault. He maintains their encounter was consensual, according to his attorney, Timothy Parlatore.
"Basically, he was totally innocent. He did nothing wrong here," Parlatore said. "We went through a mediation and ultimately settled for far less than what she wanted. And that should have completely buried it."
The alleged incident occurred in Monterey, California, on Oct. 7, 2017.
Hegseth had traveled to Monterey to give an address at conference of the California Federation of Republican Women. He was staying at the Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel and Spa.
The woman, who was in her 30s at the time, was a conservative group staff member who accused Hegseth, who is now 44, of raping her in his hotel room after he spent the evening drinking at a bar.
The Washington Post reported that a woman, said to be a friend of the alleged victim, wrote a memo to Trump's transition team, saying, "One of her responsibilities at the conference was to make sure Hegseth made it back to his room and left in time the next morning for the 90-minute drive to the airport."
The woman responsible for the memo went on to say she received text messages from two women at the bar who said, "Hegseth was getting pushy about his interest in taking them upstairs to his room."
The next day, according to the memo, the accuser returned home and "had a moment of hazy memory of being raped the night before, and had a panic attack."
A friend of the accuser said she had never known her in her 15 years to ever be irresponsible or drunk or have a questionable character.
But according to Parlatore, the woman pursued Hegseth and was sober at the time.
"He had way too many drinks, and according to video surveillance and eyewitness testimony, this woman, who was sober, took advantage of him, and she was the aggressor.
"She took him by the arm and she led him up to his room," Parlatore added.
Parlatore said the accuser was trying to save her relationship with her husband.
"She woke up," the attorney said, citing a police report, "to a whole bunch of texts from her husband saying, 'Why didn't you come back to our room?' Afterward, she had to come back and lie."
The accuser filed a complaint days later to the police. The complaint was then taken up by the district attorney, who did not pursue charges.
In 2020, the accuser threatened Hegseth with court. This led to settlement charges and the accuser signing a nondisclosure agreement.
"If she were to come out and start repeating these false claims, or if this in any way derails the confirmation," Parlatore said, "then, yeah, we will probably be following a pretty massive lawsuit against her for defamation and civil and extortion."