WASHINGTON DC: Two of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s key nominations – Fox News host Pete Hegseth for defense secretary and former lawmaker Matt Gaetz as attorney general — have become embroiled in sex controversies that could threaten their Senate confirmations to serve in Trump’s Cabinet.
Hegseth, 44, paid an undisclosed amount to a woman who accused him of sexual assault in 2017 to avert the threat of what he viewed as a baseless claim becoming public, his lawyer, Tim Parlatore, told U.S. news media this weekend.
Gaetz, 42, resigned abruptly last week from the House of Representatives near the end of his fourth two-year term, just days before the House Ethics Committee was nearing conclusion of an investigation into whether he had had sex with a 17-year-old girl and engaged in illicit drug use.
Some lawmakers have described Gaetz showing nude cellphone pictures of his sexual conquests in the House chamber.
Gaetz has denied the allegations and federal authorities had earlier this year decided not to bring charges.
Hegseth’s lawyer, Parlatore, described Hegseth’s hotel sexual encounter with the woman after a Republican women’s event in Monterey, California, in 2017 as consensual. Local police, after an investigation, did not file any charges.
Parlatore told The Washington Post that Hegseth settled the woman’s claim a few years later because he believed the filing of her threatened lawsuit “would result in his immediate termination from Fox,” where he was the popular host of a weekend talk show.
“He was falsely accused, and my position is that he was the victim of blackmail,” Parlatore told The Associated Press, calling it a case of “successful extortion.” The woman’s name has not been made public, and U.S. news media do not usually disclose the names of alleged sexual assault victims without their consent.
Parlatore’s statements to news outlets came after a woman who said she is a friend of the accuser sent a detailed memo to the Trump transition several days ago detailing the Hegseth incident with his accuser.
The accuser alleged that Hegseth had raped her after drinking at a hotel bar.
Trump so far has stood by Hegseth, an unconventional selection as the Pentagon chief.
Some Democratic and Republican lawmakers have raised concerns about Hegseth’s lack of a managerial background, either at the Defense Department or at a business.
The Pentagon chief would oversee more than 2 million U.S. troops and a civilian work force of nearly 800,000 people.
In addition, some critics have raised concerns about a large tattoo on Hegseth’s upper right chest, which he characterizes as a Christian symbol, a “Jerusalem cross,” but what his critics say is a white nationalist symbol.
Hegseth told one interviewer that he was removed by superiors from a National Guard detail handling security for President Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021 for fear that he was “an extremist” because of the tattoo.
When the allegations against Hegseth first emerged, Trump spokesman Steven Cheung contended that Hegseth “has vigorously denied any and all accusations.
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.”
(VOA)
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