President-elect Donald Trump defended his nominee to lead the U.S. Department of Defense after uncharged allegations of sexual assault.
Trump nominated Fox News anchor Pete Hegseth to serve as Defense secretary, one the most important cabinet positions with responsibility for the largest and most complex federal agency with an annual budget of $840 billion and 3.4 million military and civilian employees.
Hegseth, 44, faces scrutiny over a 2017 sexual encounter in which a woman told police the former Fox News anchor blocked the door of a hotel room in California and sexually assaulted her. Hegseth has denied the allegation and said that the encounter was consensual. The woman reported the allegations to local police. Hegseth was never charged with a crime. He reached an undisclosed settlement with the woman in 2023.
In a second matter, Hegseth's mother, Penelope, castigated her son for "abusive behavior" toward women for years in a 2018 email that the New York Times published last week. She has since apologized to her son and called publication of the email "disgusting."
On Friday, Trump again defended Hegseth.
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