While the head of state-elect Donald Trump was already announcing new Cabinet picks, his transition team members were stunned that one such selection, Pete Hegseth, was now facing sexual assault allegations which led to some members of Team Trump questioning as to how Hegseths nomination would go forward, as per two people familiar with the situation.
After mentioning that he had no issues with Hegseth being selected as his next secretary of defense Trump seemed to have fully locked in on this FOX News veteran after a matter of days along with minimal internal consideration. Within two days of Hearings a complaint about Hegseth was lodged with the heads of the trump transition team and it was about sexual assault.
This campaign was then informed about evidence which was not new as Monterey California police talked about an ‘alleged sexual assault case’ involving Hegseth on 8TH October, 2017.
During the time when Hegseth was still seen as a possible assailant dime photos from the event posted on Facebook online events pages stated that he was speaking to a California Confederation of Republican Women. Hegsteh has not in fact been mentioned in any criminal case or civil case filed in Monterey since 2017 and his lawyer refused to acknowledge any evidence of guilt.
However, an insider told BBC News that the nature of the allegations made Chief of Staff Susie Wiles to call Hegseth on Thursday. Wiles questioned Hegseth if the team needed to be on the lookout for any more outstanding issues while moving ahead.
Before his announcement, he was never interviewed by a third-party company. Some people who worked for Trump in the previous term and thought Hegseth would be placed as the secretary of the veterans affairs were surprised when it lasted so short without explaining the reasons.
There is however a source, who continued to say that there was a surprise but the president elect and the transition team went ahead with the nomination at this time.
In the last few days since, this allegation has done nothing but further aggravate Hegseth’s already tenuous position of being in charge of the largest federal agency with millions of servicemen and civilians under and about an $800 billion dollar budget. There was Friday, within Trump’s circle, the discussion whether Hegseth would rescind his own nomination.
This week has seen a surprise in the form of President-elect Hegseth’s choice for the position of head of the Defense department, with the selection of Hegseth, who has never served in a senior military or public office, shocking not only the officials in the Pentagon but also the support group of the President himself.
But Trump’s communications director defended Hegseth in an earlier statement to BBC News, saying he “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,” Steven Cheung said.
