Fox News did not respond to an inquiry about when the network found out about Hegseth’s settlement agreement.
Trump’s transition team spoke with Palatore after Hegseth was named as Trump’s nominee defense secretary, the attorney said.
Trump has indicated that these revelations have not deterred him from Hegseth’s selection as defense secretary.
The announcement that the Fox News personality was his choice for secretary of Defense took many in Washington by surprise.
The news of Hegseth’s financial settlement agreement with a confidentiality clause may ring familiar to Trump.
President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to be defense secretary, Fox News host Pete Hegseth, paid a confidential financial settlement to a woman who accused him of sexual assault because he was afraid the accusation would result in his termination from the cable news giant, his attorney told CBS News.
According to Timothy Palatore, Hegseth’s lawyer, the Army veteran, who insists he is innocent and that the sexual encounter was consensual, reached a confidential settlement agreement to prevent his accuser from pursuing a lawsuit. Hegseth denies any misconduct.
Palatore stated that the woman and her lawyer “knew that simply filing it would cause an immediate horror storm for [Hegseth]” and explained that “the reality is that, had they filed [a lawsuit], civil process takes quite a while, and so Fox News likely would have fired him based on the allegation.”. “,”.
A question concerning Fox News’s knowledge of Hegseth’s settlement deal was not answered.
According to the lawyer, Palatore had a conversation with Trump’s transition team following Hegseth’s appointment as Trump’s nominee defense secretary. Although he claimed to have “explained this fully” to them, he was unsure of any previous discussions Hegseth had with the transition team or whether they were made aware of the sexual assault claim and settlement agreement prior to the announcement of his upcoming nomination as defense secretary.
According to him, “this should have nothing to do with the confirmation process,”.
According to Trump, these disclosures have not stopped him from appointing Hegseth as defense secretary. “President Trump is nominating high-caliber and extremely qualified candidates to serve in his Administration,” stated Steven Cheung, Trump’s communications director, following the claims of sexual assault. Mr. Dot Hegseth has vehemently refuted all allegations, and no charges have been brought against him. “.”.
The alleged sexual assault occurred on October after midnight. at the Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel and Spa on 08. Four days later, the anonymous woman complained to the Monterey Police Department that Hegseth had sexually assaulted her. According to a statement from the city of Monterey, which verified the 2017 investigation into Hegseth, the woman had “contusions” on her right thigh. “There were no charges filed,” Palatore stated.
The Washington Post, which broke the story first, obtained what it described as a memo sent to the Trump transition team by the accuser’s friend, which claimed Hegseth had raped a conservative group staffer in his room after drinking at the hotel bar. The memo claims that the accuser “had a moment of hazy memory of being raped the night before, and had a panic attack” the day following the incident, according to the Post. “,”.
CBS News is unable to confirm the contents of the memo because it has not seen it.
Eyewitness accounts and video surveillance footage purport to demonstrate that the accuser was the “aggressor” in a consensual sexual encounter, Palatore told CBS News. “[Hegseth] was drunk. She wasn’t drinking anymore. He claimed that she was the one who took hold of his arm and escorted him upstairs after leaving the bar.
Palatore replied, “No,” when asked if CBS News could see the video. Additionally, he refused to reveal any eyewitnesses’ names.
Speaking to CNN last week, the alleged victim “became visibly distraught at the mention of Hegseth’s name,” according to CNN. She reportedly stopped responding after declining to be interviewed at the time, according to CNN.
Palatore refused to tell the woman when the settlement payment was due. “A couple years ago,” he said, stressing that it happened “well before Trump was even nominated [for the presidency], let alone had named Pete to this position.”. “,”.
Furthermore, he refused to reveal the settlement’s exact amount, stating only that it was “far, far less than what she wanted.”. “Basically an extortion and blackmail,” he described it. “.
According to Palatore, Hegseth was notified two years after the alleged incident that the woman was threatening to sue him and making what they called “false claims” against him. Palatore claimed to be in need of money after losing her job. He sent her a cease-and-desist letter in February 2020. She remained “quiet for a year” before he found out that she had secured legal representation.
Controversy has surrounded Trump’s choice of Hegseth. Many people in Washington were surprised to learn that he had selected the Fox News personality to be his secretary of defense. The Republican senator from Alaska, Lisa Murkowski, said, “Wow,” when she heard that he had been chosen to head the Defense Department. She reiterated, “I just said, wow,” when asked what she thought.
The “Deux Vult” tattoo on Hegseth’s inner bicep is one of the tattoos that has drawn attention. A member of Hegseth’s National Guard unit was alarmed by the tattoo’s symbolism, which has been linked to extremist organizations and the Christian Crusaders. Prior to President Joe Biden’s inauguration, the member alerted superiors to Hegseth’s potential “insider threat.”. He was taken off the inauguration security detail.
Vice president-elect JD Vance defended Pete Hegseth on social media after The Associated Press reported that he had been flagged as a threat. Vance accused the outlet of “attacking Pete Hegseth for having a Christian motto tattooed on his arm.”. “They can target me — I don’t give a damn — but this type of targeting of Christians, conservatives, patriots, and everyday Americans will stop on DAY ONE at DJT’s DoD,” Hegseth wrote in a comment after sharing Vance’s tweet. “.”.
It may sound familiar to Trump to learn of Hegseth’s financial settlement deal with a confidentiality clause. Due to his personal issues with a nondisclosure agreement with adult film star Stormy Daniels, the president-elect was found guilty of a felony in New York and became the first former president to face criminal charges.
34 counts of falsifying business records pertaining to a purported cover-up of the payment to Daniels led to Trump’s conviction. He has maintained that the Supreme Court’s decision on presidential immunity should be one of the grounds for overturning the verdict and dismissing the indictment.
, and helped to create this report.
