Pete Hegseth, future Secretary of Defense
Fox News commentator Pete Hegseth is the new controversial choice for Donald Trump’s government and will head Defense. Hegseth was in the military and considered an insider threat due to his tattoos.
The Fox News presenter appointed by Donald Trump to lead the Defense Department of the future US government, Pete Hegseth, was accused of sexual assault in 2017at a Republican women’s event in California, authorities revealed today.
According to Monterey city authorities, in response to questions from the media, the incident took place from October 7 to October 8, 2017 and the person who reported the assault – whose name, age and gender were not disclosed – had bruises on the right thigh. The alleged victim informed the police that there were no weapons of any kind involved in the case.
City officials declined to release a police report documenting the allegations made and instead issued a short statement that said Monterey police were contacted to investigate the alleged sexual assault which presumably took place at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Monterey and involved Pete Hegseth.
Hegseth’s attorney, Timothy Parlatore, told the Associated Press that the allegations were “completely false”. “This was investigated by the police at the time and they found no evidence,” he added.
Monterey city officials said they were investigating further, based on the police report.
Pete Hegseth was in town at the time to speak at the California Federation of Republican Women convention dinner, according to social media posts and promotional materials.
Steven Cheung, Donald Trump’s transition spokesman, said the president-elect is “ nominate high-caliber candidates and extremely qualified to serve in your Administration.” “Hegseth vigorously denied any and all allegations and no charges were filed,” Cheung said.
Symbol associated with white supremacy
Pete Hegseth, who is also an army veteran, was also identified by a former colleague as a possible “internal threat” for having a tattoo associated with white supremacist groups.
Pete Hegseth, who has downplayed the role of military personnel and veterans in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol in the wake of Trump’s 2020 presidential defeat and criticized the Pentagon’s subsequent efforts to confront extremism in the ranks, said he was away by your unit of serving as Joe Biden’s guard during his inauguration as President in January 2021.
According to him, his removal, by the District of Columbia Army National Guard, was decided by a “unfair identification as extremist” based on a cross-shaped tattoo she has on her chest.
This week, however, a colleague from the National Guard, who was, at the time, the unit’s security manager and was part of an anti-terrorism team, stated, in statements to the Associated Press, that he had sent an email to those responsible for the unit realizing a different tattoo, with a design that has been used by white supremacists and stating that this is an indication of an “internal threat”.
According to DeRicko Gaither, the warning was given after he received an email with a screenshot of a social media post that included two photos showing several of Hegseth’s tattoos.
Gaither claimed to have researched the tattoos – including one of a Jerusalem cross accompanied by the words (“Deus Vult” “Deus Quer” in Latin) on his bicep – and determined that it was, sufficiently associated with extremist groups to take the email to your commanders.
Several of Hegseth’s tattoos are associated with an expression of religious faith, according to Heidi Beirich of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, but they have also been adopted by some far-right and violent extremist groups.
“Its meaning depends on the context“, he said, speaking to the Associated Press (AP).
Neither Hegseth nor Donald Trump’s presidential transition team have made any comment on the situation.
The now Defense Department nominee, who has been a Fox television channel host since 2017, took a different approach to the widespread condemnation that was felt the day after the attack on the Capitol.
In a panel on Fox News, Hegseth portrayed the crowd as patriots who “love freedom” and the country and that they had “awakened again to the reality of what the left has done” to the United States.
Of the 14 people convicted in the attack on the Capitol for seditious conspiracy, eight had served in the Armed Forces. Although most people with military backgrounds detained in the wake of January 6 were no longer on active duty, more than 20 were still in the military at the time of the attack, according to START.
Hegseth wrote in his book “The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free,” published earlier this year, that only “a handful” of soldiers and reservists were at the Capitol that day and argued that the Pentagon overreacted by taking steps to confront extremism.
Hegseth’s profile prepared by the AP also states that he was in the army for almost 20 years and was deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay, having received two medals.
During this period, it took measures to support convicted war criminals and recently said he ordered his platoon to ignore directives limiting the ability to fire.
In a podcast interview released earlier this month, he said he was proud of his role in obtaining pardons given by Trump in 2019 to a former US army commando who will be tried for the murder of an alleged Afghan bomb maker, and to a former army lieutenant convicted of murder for ordering his men to shoot three Afghans, killing two.
At Hegseth’s request, Trump also ordered a promotion of Eddie Gallagher, a Navy SEAL convicted of posing with a dead Islamic State prisoner in Iraq.
Announcements from members of Trump’s new government are making waves. After the choice to lead a department for government efficiency became known, Trump also nominated the congressman — who was investigated for sex trafficking — for attorney general and — who supports several conspiracies about vaccines — to head Health.
