The FBI background test on Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump‘s choose for protection secretary, doesn’t embody interviews with Hegseth’s ex-wives or with the lady who accused him of sexual assault in a California lodge room in 2017, in response to three sources with direct information of the contents of the report.
It is customary protocol to interview present and former spouses when conducting an FBI background test, in response to two different sources aware of the method. But it is usually contingent on cooperation from the interviewees, and it isn’t clear whether or not the FBI tried outreach to these folks.
Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee, which can be holding Hegseth’s affirmation listening to on Tuesday, additionally despatched inquiries to counsel for Hegseth’s ex-wives, however they didn’t share data with the committee, in response to two sources.
Since Trump introduced Hegseth as his choose to run the Pentagon, the navy veteran and former Fox News host has confronted a lot of controversies and negative allegations. With regard to the 2017 allegation of sexual assault, Hegseth has stated the incident was consensual however paid his accuser an undisclosed quantity in 2023 as a part of a settlement settlement. The native district legal professional declined to filed expenses within the case, saying there was no “proof past an inexpensive doubt” for expenses.
Senate Democrats have already been elevating alarms about delays producing the FBI test on Hegseth and concerns about its thoroughness, whereas the Trump transition has downplayed these considerations.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., a former state legal professional common and Armed Services Committee member, advised reporters Monday night time that “there could also be surprises” at Hegseth’s affirmation listening to “as a result of we’ve got been denied entry to among the supplies and paperwork and different data, together with the FBI report, that will comprise data forthcoming in the course of the listening to.”
“I simply wish to emphasize, there’s already ample and considerable data on the general public document that reveals Peter Hegseth lacks the character and confidence to be Secretary of Defense,” Blumenthal added. “There has by no means been a nominee for this place as unqualified as he’s by advantage of monetary mismanagement, in addition to sexual impropriety and alcohol.”
Democrats on the committee are being briefed Monday night time on the FBI report by the panel’s rating member, Democratic Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island. Reed and committee chair Roger Wicker, a Republican senator from Mississippi, acquired the report on the finish of final week.
The FBI didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark Monday night.
