(CNN) — President-elect Donald Trump‘s transition team was in the midst of announcing new picks for the…
(CNN) — President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team was in the midst of announcing new Cabinet picks this week when it was informed of a sexual assault allegation involving one of his previous appointees, Pete Hegseth, shocking and took off base several members of Trump’s team who have since raised questions about the viability of that appointment, according to two people close to the situation.
Trump had announced he would nominate Hegseth as his next defense secretary after just a few days of consideration of the war veteran-turned-Fox News host’s choice and very little internal vetting. Within 48 hours, Trump transition team leaders received a complaint about a sexual assault allegation involving Hegseth.
Who is Pete Hegseth, the Fox host Trump chose as Secretary of Defense?
The campaign received information consistent with what Monterey, California, police described as an investigation into “an alleged sexual assault” involving Hegseth on October 8, 2017.
Hegseth was a speaker at a conference hosted by the California Federation of Republican Women at a hotel during the period when the assault allegedly occurred, according to photos of the event posted on Facebook. Hegseth has not been charged in any criminal case or named as a defendant in any civil lawsuit filed in Monterey County since 2017, and his attorney denied any wrongdoing.
But the nature of the allegations led incoming White House chief of staff Susie Wiles to question Hegseth during a call Thursday, a source told CNN. Wiles asked Hegseth if there were any other issues the team should be aware of moving forward.
Hegseth was never evaluated by an outside firm before his appointment was announced. Some people who previously worked for Trump when he was in office and who briefly considered Hegseth to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs noted that that consideration was short-lived for similar reasons, without citing specific details.
A source insisted that despite the surprise, the president-elect and the transition team were moving forward with the selection at this time.
But in the days since, the allegation has only shaken Hegseth’s already shaky selection to lead the federal government’s largest agency, which includes millions of service members and civilians and a budget of more than $800 billion. There was open speculation Friday in Trump’s orbit about whether Hegseth would ultimately withdraw his own selection, with several people concerned that more damaging information could be on the way.
