Pete Hegseth says he was blackmailed into bribing rape accuser

President-elect Donald Trump’s choice of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth Her lawyer, Timothy Parlatore, told The Post that she was blackmailed during the #MeToo movement and paid her accuser to keep quiet.

Hegseth, who worked as a Fox News host until Trump tapped him for the cabinet, paid an undisclosed amount to a woman who accused him of sexual assault, claiming it was consensual, his lawyer confirmed.

“He was actually completely innocent. He didn’t do anything wrong here,” Parlatore said. “We went through a mediation process and ultimately settled for much less than he wanted. And that should have buried him completely.

Last week, the Trump transition team received a memo from a friend of the accuser detailing accusations against Trump’s surprise pick to lead the Department of Defense. The Washington Post reported.

The alleged incident occurred on October 7, 2017, in Monterey, California, in which an unidentified employee from a conservative group accused Hegseth, now 44, of raping her in her hotel room after a drunken night at the bar. He was in his 30s at the time.

Hegseth was staying at the Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel and Spa after giving a speech at the California Federation of Republican Women conference.

Parlatore, who refused to disclose the amount paid or the woman’s identity, pursued Hegseth, claiming she was sober.

“He had had too much to drink and based on the footage and eyewitness testimony, this woman, who was sober, took advantage of him and she was the aggressor,” he said.

“He grabbed her arm and took her to his room.”

But a memo about the incident sent to the transition team, which The Post was not able to independently obtain, claims that he was responsible for ensuring Hegseth returned to his room and the airport the next day, according to the Washington Post.

At that time, he was staying at the hotel with his children and wife. She decided to intervene after receiving messages from two women at the bar claiming “Hegseth was being pushy about taking them upstairs to his room,” according to the memo.

According to the note, the accuser “had a blurry memory of being raped the night before and suffered a panic attack.”

A friend of the accuser said she had seen him at events over the past 15 years but had “never known him to be irresponsible, drunk or of a suspicious character.”

Parlatore claimed the accuser was only trying to protect her husband’s reputation.

“She woke up to a bunch of texts from her husband: ‘Why didn’t you come back to our room?’ Then he had to come back and lie,” he added, citing a police report that has not been made public.

Days after the encounter, the accuser subsequently filed a complaint with the police, who investigated the situation and ultimately the local district attorney declined to pursue charges.

Two years later, in 2020, the accuser threatened to pursue Hegseth in court, resulting in the woman making a settlement payment to Hegseth in exchange for signing a confidentiality agreement.

“If he comes out and starts repeating these false claims, or if that breaks fact-checking in any way, then yeah, we’ll probably be pursuing a pretty big lawsuit against him for defamation, civil and extortion,” Parlatore said.

Hegseth, a military veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, is widely viewed as an unconventional choice to take the post at the Pentagon, given his lack of experience running a large organization.

Trump, 78, chose Hegseth, who has degrees from Princeton and Harvard, to dramatically shake up the Pentagon and eliminate Diversity, Equity and Inclusion practices in the American armed forces.

The president-elect is so far staying loyal to his Defense Secretary nominee amid accusations. surprised the transition team.

“President Trump is nominating highly qualified and highly qualified candidates to serve in his Administration,” Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung said in a statement.

“Mr. Hegseth vehemently denied all accusations and no criminal charges were filed. “We look forward to his confirmation as the United States Secretary of Defense so he can begin Day One of Making America Safe and Great Again.”

The Post was unable to identify the accuser to get its version of events.