Republicans are making a big show of being “shocked” by Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees, and many of them are tut-tutting the choices of Robert Kennedy Jr, Matt Gaetz and Pete Hegseth in particular. Kennedy is going to give everyone polio, measles and covid. Matt Gaetz is going to make the Department of Justice a haven for sexual predators. Pete Hegseth is going to ban women and people of color from the Pentagon and the armed services, all so he can create an ultra-right-wing white Christian army. But that’s not all – as it turns out, Gaetz won’t be the only sexual predator in Trump’s cabinet. Pete Hegseth paid a woman who accused him of drugging and raping her.

Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of defense, paid a woman who accused him of sexual assault as part of a nondisclosure agreement, though he maintained that their encounter was consensual, according to a statement from his lawyer Saturday and other documents obtained by The Washington Post.

Hegseth’s attorney, Timothy Parlatore, said that Hegseth was “visibly intoxicated” at the time of the incident, and maintained that police who were contacted a few days after the encounter by the woman concluded that “the Complainant had been the aggressor in the encounter.” Police have not confirmed that assertion. Hegseth agreed to pay an undisclosed amount to the woman because he feared that revelation of the matter “would result in his immediate termination from Fox,” where he worked as a host, the statement said.

The statement came after a detailed memo was sent to the Trump transition team this week by a woman who said she is a friend of the accuser. The memo, a copy of which was obtained by The Post, alleged he raped the then-30-year-old conservative group staffer in his room after drinking at a hotel bar. The person who sent the memo to the transition team did not respond to requests for comment from The Post.

The accuser, whose identity has not been made public, filed a complaint with the police alleging she was sexually assaulted days after the Oct. 7, 2017, encounter in Monterey, California, but the local district attorney did not bring charges. Police confirmed that they investigated the incident. After she threatened litigation in 2020, Hegseth made the payment and she signed the nondisclosure agreement, his attorney said.

The detailed four-page memo about the incident has set off debate among senior Trump transition officials, but so far Trump has stood behind Hegseth. Spokesman Steven Cheung earlier this week said: “President Trump is nominating high-caliber and extremely qualified candidates to serve in his Administration. Mr. Hegseth has vigorously denied any and all accusations, and no charges were filed. We look forward to his confirmation as United States Secretary of Defense so he can get started on Day One to Make America Safe and Great Again.”

[From The Washington Post]

In the letter to the Trump transition team, the victim’s friend described in detail what happened, which is that Hegseth likely drugged her and she lost about nine hours in the night in question, and what she does remember is struggling to find her way out of Hegseth’s hotel room. She had a panic attack and felt certain that he had raped her, so she went to the emergency room and got a rape kit. The whole thing sounds like it could be a pattern. I doubt it was the first time for Hegseth, let me just say that.

Oh, and there’s also an issue about his tattoos. Several of his tattoos are, like, known white nationalist and Christofascist symbols.

Photos courtesy of Hegseth’s IG, YouTube videos.