A woman told police that Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for defense secretary, took her phone and blocked her from leaving his hotel room before sexually assaulting her in 2017 after a Republican women’s convention in California, according to official records of a police investigation released Wednesday night.
The documents released by the Monterey Police Department say the woman, identified only as “Jane Doe,” didn’t remember much else about the Oct. 7, 2017, incident and believed some form of drug may have been slipped into her drink, she told an emergency room nurse days later.
Hegseth was not charged and he denies any wrongdoing. His attorney, Timothy Parlatore, said the report’s description of surveillance footage at the Monterey hotel, where the woman met Hegseth, and police interviews with other people at the hotel prove his innocence.
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“This police report confirms what I’ve said all along,” Parlatore told NBC News on Thursday. “The incident was fully investigated and police found the allegation to be false, which is why no charges were filed.”
Police did not give a reason for not charging him. The report said that surveillance footage shows the woman, Hegseth and an unknown woman walk into the hotel lobby and toward the bar together around midnight. Another video shows the two walking together with their arms interlocked shortly after 1 a.m., the report said.
At least three people told police that the woman appeared coherent and not intoxicated throughout the night and early morning, according to the report.
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The allegations emerged last weekend when Hegseth confirmed he had paid an undisclosed amount as part of a settlement with his accuser. In a previous statement, Parlatore said “Hegseth strongly felt that he was the victim of blackmail and innocent collateral damage in a lie that the Complainant was holding onto to keep her marriage intact.”
Parlatore said Hegseth “ultimately decided to enter into a settlement for a significantly reduced amount” at the “height of the MeToo movement.”
The Trump transition team did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment about the report’s release. In a statement last week, Trump communications director Steven Cheung said that Hegseth has “vigorously denied any and all accusations” and that Trump is “nominating high-caliber and extremely qualified candidates to serve in his Administration.”
Hegseth, a former Fox News anchor, is one of three high-profile picks to join Trump’s new Cabinet who have faced serious allegations of sexual impropriety.
The report said the unidentified woman, who later went to a hospital for a sexual assault exam, confronted Hegseth, a guest speaker at the event, because “she did not appreciate how he treated women,” the report said.
The woman said she was drinking a “small amount of Champagne” at an after-party but didn’t remember having any “hard alcohol.” She and a group of other women went to a bar attached to the hotel, where she had more to drink, while Hegseth was allegedly also present.
“That’s when things got fuzzy,” she told police. When she left the bar, she said Hegseth followed her, she assumed because of their earlier argument, according to the report. She told police she remembered Hegseth saying he was a “nice guy.”
The woman said she then found herself in an unknown room. She told police that Hegseth asked whom she was texting and took her phone from her, before physically blocking her attempt to leave the room.
“JANE DOE remembered saying ‘no’ a lot,” the report said. “JANE DOE’s next memory was when she was on a bed or a couch and HEGSETH was over her.”
She said his dog tags were hovering over her face and that he was bare-chested.
She told police he ejaculated onto her stomach, before throwing her a towel and asking “Are you OK?”
The woman said she does not remember how she got back to her hotel room, which she was sharing with her husband, and that the alleged encounter with Hegseth didn’t dawn on her until she had returned home. Four days later, she went to the hospital for an exam, the report said.
Investigators were alerted to the alleged assault by an emergency room nurse who treated the accuser Oct. 12, 2017. The nurse said the patient wished to be identified as Jane Doe and wanted a sexual assault examination.
The patient said she could not remember “most of the night’s events,” including whether any sexual penetration occurred, the nurse told police. The woman told the nurse that she believed “something may have been slipped into her drink” and that she was sexually assaulted, but did not want to disclose the suspect’s name, according to the report.
Investigators also interviewed the accuser, her husband, at least one woman who attended the convention, a hotel worker and Hegseth.
In a telephone interview Oct. 26, 2017, Hegseth told police after the event that he had sex with the woman in his hotel room but that it was consensual and that he made sure she was comfortable with what was going on.
He said he had not planned to initiate sex with her and that he “thought it was odd” she stayed in his room, according to the police report. “She sat down in the room and did not leave,” the report said.
Hegseth told police he and the woman would both stop and say “we shouldn’t do this,” though they mutually continued, according to the report.
Afterwards, Hegseth said, the woman said she would tell her husband she had fallen asleep on a couch in someone else’s room. She showed “early signs of regret,” Hegseth said, although he did not elaborate on what those signs were.
When the woman returned to her own hotel room around 4 a.m., she was apologetic and told her husband that she “must have fallen asleep,” he told police. He said she “did not have a hard time walking and was not slurring her words,” according to the report.
A hotel employee told police that Hegseth “was very intoxicated” but the woman was not and that she was “standing on her own and was very coherent.”
A woman who was at the bar with them told police the accuser drank a glass of champagne and some vodka at the after-party and at least one alcoholic beverage at the bar, but she was coherent and did not seem intoxicated. The woman said the accuser appeared to flirt with Hegseth by touching his body or arm, the report said.
On Thursday, Hegseth told reporters on the Hill after meeting with senators that he looks forward to engaging in the confirmation process and is taking nothing for granted.
When asked if he sexually assaulted a woman in Monterrey, Hegseth said: “As far as the media is concerned, I’ll keep this very simple. The matter was fully investigated and I was completely cleared, and that’s where I’m going to leave it.”
Julia Jester contributed.
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