Pete Hegseth paid settlement to accuser but denies sexual assault

Between the lines: Hegseth's lawyer, Tim Parlatore, provided Axios with the explanation Hegseth gave Trump transition officials. The issue could sink Hegseth's chance of being confirmed.

• The lawyer said both he and Hegseth conveyed the explanation in conversations with Trump aides.

Context: In response to inquiries about Hegseth, the City of Monterey (Calif.) on Thursday released a statement saying police investigated an "alleged sexual assault" that occurred around midnight or in the early morning hours of Oct. 8, 2017.

• Police reported contusions, or bruises, to the woman's right thigh.
• The woman's name and age were kept confidential. Axios was not able to reach her, and would not identify a victim of an alleged sexual assault.

The backstory: On Thursday, two days after Trump stunned the defense world by nominating Hegseth, Vanity Fair's Gabe Sherman reported that transition leaders had been briefed on "an allegation that Hegseth had acted inappropriately with a woman."

• The transition team learned of the incident from a friend of the woman, who signed a nondisclosure agreement with Hegseth, The Washington Post reports.

The other side: Hegseth is telling Trump officials that after he spoke at a California Federation of Republican Women convention on the evening of Oct. 7, 2017, he went to an afterparty at the hotel bar with several of the group's leaders, including the accuser.

• At the end of the afterparty, Hegseth left with the woman, according to a submission from his lawyer in 2021, when the two parties were threatening to sue each other.
• "Video surveillance confirms that the two of them were walking together with arms locked together," says a statement Hegseth's lawyer provided to Axios that summarizes the account given to Trump vetting officials.
• Axios has not seen the video. The lawyer, Parlatore, said he doesn't have it, and that the description came from the police investigation. Such a video would not establish consent.

A consensual sexual encounter followed, the statement says.

• The statement says the woman later approached authorities, and the case was closed after a review by the district attorney's office.

What they're saying: Hegseth in 2023 entered into a settlement with the woman and signed a mutual nondisclosure, Parlatore said.

• "Hegseth strongly felt that he was the victim of blackmail," the statement said. But knowing he could be fired from his role as a "Fox & Friends Weekend" co-host, he "ultimately decided to enter into a settlement" for significantly less money than the accuser had originally asked for.
• The agreement included a provision precluding either side from speaking out about the matter, the lawyer told Axios.

The big picture: Hegseth's assertion that women should not serve in combat is also under scrutiny.

• Matt Gaetz, Trump's choice for attorney general, faced a sex trafficking investigation by the Justice Department he would lead. (He wasn't charged.) A sexual misconduct probe by the House Ethics Committee effectively ended when he resigned from Congress after he was picked by Trump.
• The final month of Trump's first campaign for president was clouded by his lewd comments about women on the "Access Hollywood" tape. Last year he was found liable and ordered to pay $5 million for sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll in 1996. In January, he was ordered to pay Carroll $83.3 million for defamatory statements against her.