Woman told police Pete Hegseth took her cell phone, wouldn’t let her leave and sexually assaulted her

A woman told police she was sexually assaulted by Pete Hegseth in 2017 after he took her phone, blocked the door to a California hotel room and refused to let her leave, according to a detailed investigative report was released late Wednesday.

Hegseth, a Fox News personality and President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for defense secretary, told police at the time that the encounter was consensual and denied any wrongdoing, the report said.

News of the allegations emerged last week when local officials released a brief statement confirming that a woman had accused Hegseth of sexual assault in October 2017 after he spoke at a Republican women’s event in Monterey.

Hegseth’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment early Thursday. He said Hegseth paid the woman in 2023 to avert the risk of a baseless lawsuit.

The 22-page police report was released in response to a public records request and provides the first detailed account of what allegedly happened to the woman – an account that conflicts with Hegseth’s version of events. The report cited police interviews with the alleged victim, a nurse who treated her, a hotel employee, another woman at the event and Hegseth.

The woman’s name has not been released, and The Associated Press typically does not name people who say they were sexually assaulted.

A Trump transition spokeswoman said early Thursday that the “report confirms what Mr. Hegseth’s lawyers have said all along: The incident was fully investigated and no charges were filed because police believed the allegations were false.” “

The report does not say that police believed the allegations were false. Police recommended that the case report be forwarded to the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office for review.

According to the report, investigators were initially alerted to the alleged assault by a nurse who called them after a patient requested a sexual assault evaluation. The patient told medical staff she believed she had been attacked five days ago but could not remember the incident. She reported that something may have gotten into her drink before she ended up in the hotel room where she said the assault occurred.

Police collected the unwashed dress and underwear she had worn that night, the report said.

The woman’s partner, who was staying at the hotel with her, told police he was worried about her that night after she didn’t come back to her room. At 2am he went to the hotel bar but she wasn’t there. A few hours later she came back and apologized that she “must have fallen asleep.” A few days later she told him that she had been sexually abused.

The woman who helped organize the California Federation of Republican Women meeting where Hegseth spoke told police she observed the television host behaving inappropriately throughout the night and saw him touching several women’s thighs caressed. According to the report, she texted a friend that Hegseth gave off a “sneaky” vibe.

After the event, the woman and others attended an afterparty in a hotel suite, where she said she confronted Hegseth and told him that she “didn’t appreciate how he treated women,” the report said.

A group of people, including Hegseth and the woman, made their way to the hotel bar. Then “everything became unclear,” the woman told police.

She remembered having drinks at the bar with Hegseth and others, the police report said. She also told police that she had argued with Hegseth near the hotel pool, a statement supported by a hotel employee assigned to troubleshooting who spoke to police, according to the report.

Soon after, she told police, she found herself in a hotel room with Hegseth, who took her phone and blocked the door with his body so she couldn’t leave, the report said. She also told police she remembered “saying ‘no’ a lot,” the report said.

Her next memory was lying on a couch or bed while Hegseth hovered over her, shirtless, his dog tags dangling above her, the report said. Hegseth served in the National Guard and rose to the rank of major.

After Hegseth finished, she remembered him asking if she was “OK,” the report said. She told police she couldn’t remember returning to her own hotel room and had suffered nightmares and memory loss ever since.

At the time of the alleged attack in 2017, Hegseth, now 44, was divorcing his second wife, with whom he has three children. She filed for divorce after he had a child with a Fox News producer who is now his wife, according to court documents and social media posts from Hegseth. His first marriage ended in 2009, also after Hegseth’s infidelity, court records show.

Hegseth said he attended an after-party and drank beer but did not consume alcohol, admitting he was “excited” but not drunk.

He said he met the woman at the hotel bar and she led him by her arm back to his hotel room, which surprised him because he initially had no intention of having sex with her, the report said.

Hegseth told investigators that the ensuing sexual encounter was consensual, adding that he specifically asked more than once if she was comfortable. Hegseth said that morning that the woman had “shown early signs of regret” and he assured her that he would not tell anyone about the encounter.

Hegseth’s lawyer said a payment was made to the woman as part of a confidential settlement several years after the police investigation because Hegseth feared she was ready to file a lawsuit that he feared would lead to his firing from Fox News he was a popular host. The lawyer did not want to provide any information about the amount of the payment.