President-elect Donald Trump has faced a difficult few days regarding his contentious Cabinet nominations.
This week, he encountered ongoing issues over his choices of Matt Gaetz for attorney general and Pete Hegseth for defense secretary.
One of the issues resolved itself when Gaetz withdrew his nomination for the next attorney general. Gaetz cited concerns that he was “unfairly becoming a distraction” amid an ongoing debate about whether Congress should release a House Ethics Committee report related to him. Trump selected Pam Bondi, the former attorney general of Florida, as his next pick to lead the Department of Justice just hours later.
Hegseth, like Gaetz, has been criticized for his lack of experience in the Cabinet position to which Trump nominated him.
Concerns about Hegseth’s suitability for the role were raised further this week after a police report detailing a 2017 sexual assault allegation against him was published by Mediaite. Hegseth has denied the claims and he was never charged in connection with the alleged incident.
Hegseth’s attorney, Timothy Parlatore, told Newsweek on Thursday: “This police report confirms what I have said all along: that the incident was fully investigated and police found the allegations to be false, which is why no charges were filed.”
Newsweek has contacted the Trump-Vance transition team, a spokesperson for Gaetz and Parlatore for comment via email.
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Matt Gaetz’s Appointment Collapses
The former Florida congressman was a surprising choice from Trump to lead the Department of Justice next year, not just because of his sparse professional legal experience.
Gaetz faced a two-year Department of Justice investigation over allegations that he had sex with a teenage girl and paid for her to travel with him, including across state lines, for prostitution. No charges were brought against him, and he has denied all allegations.
The House Ethics Committee opened a misconduct investigation into Gaetz in 2021 over allegations of sex trafficking, bribery and drug use.
It remains unclear if the report will ever be made public as the House Ethics Committee has no obligation to do so following Gaetz’s resignation from Congress after being named Trump’s choice for attorney general.
Pressure on Gaetz increased on Monday after Joel Leppard, who represents two women who testified to the House Ethics Committee that Gaetz paid them for sex, gave media interviews about their testimonies.
Leppard told ABC News and NBC News that one of the women saw Gaetz having sex with a 17-year-old girl at a party in 2017. Gaetz had been sworn in for his first term in the House in January of that year.
In September, Gaetz issued a lengthy statement in which he denied the allegations at the center of the ethics report, including “unequivocally” denying having sex with a minor.
It was already unclear if Gaetz, who has critics within his own party, would garner the necessary votes in a Senate nomination. With the GOP controlling the upper chamber next year with a 53-47 seat majority, Gaetz could not afford to have more than three Republican senators vote against his nomination.
Ultimately, Gaetz opted to withdraw his nomination, with Bondi expected to have a much clearer path to becoming the next attorney general.
“There is no time to waste on a needlessly protracted Washington scuffle, thus I’ll be withdrawing my name from consideration to serve as attorney general. Trump’s DOJ must be in place and ready on Day 1,” Gaetz posted on X, formerly Twitter.
Pete Hegseth’s Sexual Assault Allegations
Hegseth, a former Fox News host, also faced bipartisan scrutiny due to his lack of experience as defense secretary and his previous comments about women and LGBTQ+ individuals in the military.
Last week, further questions about Hegseth’s suitability arose after city officials in Montgomery, California, confirmed that a woman had accused Hegseth of sexual assault in October 2017, following his speech at the California Federation of Republican Women convention.
Late on Wednesday, Mediaite published the police report filed against Hegseth, which revealed new details surrounding the sexual assault allegation. No charges were filed, and Hegseth denied the allegations both via his lawyer and while speaking to reporters at the Capitol on Thursday.
The 22-page report states that the woman, identified only as Jane Doe, alleged Hegseth assaulted her in a hotel room following the convention after he allegedly took her phone and blocked the door to prevent her from leaving.
The police report states that Hegseth said the sexual encounter was consensual and that he asked several times if she was “comfortable” with what they were doing.
Los Angeles-based civil rights attorney V. James DeSimone said that the claims may hinder Hegseth’s chances of confirmation as defense secretary.
“The sexual assault allegations are likely to hinder his approval because the police report supports the credibility of the allegations, even if they were not pursued,” DeSimone told Newsweek.
“The bigger issue is Hegseth’s utter lack of experience for the job. Compound that with the indication that he will politicize the military and fire experienced commanders who stand for, for example, gender diversity in the military, and the recipe for disaster may just burn his chances of ever leading the Pentagon.”
The woman said she had been drinking with colleagues at the convention and had argued with Hegseth near the hotel pool because she saw him “acting inappropriately” with other women at the conference, including rubbing their legs.
She said that her next memory was being on a bed or a couch with Hegseth “over her,” according to the police report. The woman added that Hegseth then ejaculated on her stomach, threw a towel at her and asked, “Are you OK?”
Days later, a California nurse reported that a woman, believed to be Jane Doe, came into a clinic to request a rape kit, believing she had been assaulted after someone possibly spiked her drink.
The police report said video surveillance footage showed Hegseth and the woman walking together on the night in question, with their arms locked together. Police said the footage shows Hegseth talking while the woman was smiling, and neither had an “unsteady gait.”
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Hegseth said: “The matter was fully investigated and I was completely cleared, and that’s where I am going to leave it.”
Hegseth has received support from GOP senators in the wake of the report being published.
Wyoming Senator John Barrasso, who is set to be the No. 2 Senate Republican, said in a statement that Hegseth is a “strong nominee” to lead the Department of Defense.
Ohio Senator Markwayne Mullin told reporters Thursday that Hegseth is “perfect” for the role and the “right man for the job.”