Police Report Details Appear to Clear Pete Hegseth of Allegations

Last week, Donald Trump said he was going to nominate Pete Hegseth for Defense Secretary.

The outrage was immediate, as well as concerns over the hush-money payment he made to an alleged victim of sexual abuse, much of which should now be put down due to the details of the actual police report.

Trump Nominated Hegseth

Last time around, Trump leaned into the advice from what I am going to assume were his establishment friends in DC, such as Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC).

That is clearly not the case this time, as evidenced by picks like Fox News host Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense.

In nominating Hegseth, Trump stated, “With Pete at the helm, America’s enemies are on notice — Our Military will be Great Again, and America will Never Back Down. Nobody fights harder for the Troops, and Pete will be a courageous and patriotic champion of our ‘Peace through Strength’ policy.”

Hegseth’s military experience consists of serving in the Army National Guard from 2002 to 2021. He was deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as serving in Guantanamo Bay in 2004. He left the service as Major.

Concern

There was concern for several reasons, the obvious being that Hegseth did not have the experience to run the entire military, having served in the Guard and retiring as a Major.

Hegseth will run the department that receives the lion’s share of the budget every year, more than $800 billion, while also being responsible for nearly three million troops overall.

As a major, he was likely never in charge of more than 200 or so soldiers at any given time, so there is legitimate concern here.

Additionally, there is the report of Hegseth allegedly sexually abusing a woman.

Alleged Rape

Hegseth has admitted to paying hush money to the alleged victim, but he maintains to this day it was only to make the story go away, still claiming he was innocent of the allegations. The alleged victim claimed that she and Hegseth had gotten into an argument and that Hegseth later raped her in a hotel room, even refusing to let her leave at one point.

The police report, however, says differently. The police found no evidence whatsoever to back the woman’s claim, with witnesses even claiming the two were acting more like a couple than someone forcing a woman to be with him (to read the full details of the report, click here).

By all accounts, the allegations were only made as a cover story because the alleged victim was married. As Megyn Kelly stated, “This smells like utter bullsh**. All of this sounds much more consistent with a woman who had a booty call.”

That police report would seem to put the allegations behind Hegseth, now he will only have to fight back against his lack of experience during the vetting process. I am not saying he will not be confirmed, but this one is going to be a challenge for Trump.