Pat Hegseth’s former brother-in-law submitted an affidavit to senators on Tuesday accusing Mr. Hegseth, President Trump’s nominee for defense secretary, of “abusing” his second wife to the point that she was a The bars were hidden in the closet. It was a safe word to call for help if she needed to get away from him.
In a Capitol Hill office Tuesday afternoon, senators were reviewing an affidavit from Danielle Dietrich Hegseth, the ex-wife of Mr. Hegseth’s brother, describing Mr. Hegseth’s “erratic and aggressive” behavior. Because of which his second wife was afraid for him. Safety According to a copy obtained by The New York Times, he also claimed that he often drank excessively in both public and private settings, including on one occasion when he was wearing his military uniform.
The allegations, which Mr. Hegseth denied through his lawyer, came as Republicans were scrambling to confirm him, and could jeopardize that push. About a half-dozen Republicans who have learned of the allegations in recent days have privately expressed serious concerns about them, according to people familiar with the discussions.
Hours after the affidavit was filed, Republican leaders moved to schedule a vote on Mr. Hegseth’s confirmation for Tuesday night, with many rank-and-file members of the party calling the affidavit a character assassination. Dismissed as a desperate attempt. failed
Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota and the majority leader, began taking steps to limit debate and schedule an up-or-down vote within days, closing any avenue for senators to investigate further. Effectively shut down. And all Republicans voted to keep the nomination on track.
Senator Roger Wicker, the Mississippi Republican who chairs the Armed Services Committee, said he did not expect the new revelations to threaten Mr. Hegseth’s confirmation, and that if the Senate was to ensure his immediate confirmation Will work weekends if necessary. With Democrats expected to largely oppose Mr. Hegseth, he can only afford to lose three GOP votes.
“The nomination is going to go ahead,” Mr. Wicker told reporters, adding that while he had not reviewed the affidavit, he had “serious doubts about the substance” and believed its author had ” There is an ax to grind.”
In her affidavit, Danielle Hegseth said she had spoken to the FBI about Mr. Hegseth and had come before Congress in the hope that his account would persuade enough Republicans to block him. She said she was submitting her account at the request of Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee.
“I am assured that making this public statement will ensure that some senators who are still on the fence will vote against Higseth’s confirmation,” he wrote. Affidavit NBC News previously reported..
Mr. Reed said the account describes behavior that is disqualifying, and “confirms my fear” that the FBI’s background check on Mr. Hegseth was incomplete.
“The alleged pattern of abuse and misconduct by Mr Hegseth is disturbing,” he said. “This conduct would disqualify any service member from holding any leadership position in the military, much less confirmation as Secretary of Defense.”
In an affidavit sent to the Armed Services panel on Tuesday, Daniel Hegseth wrote that at one point between 2014 and 2016, Mr. Hegseth’s second wife, Samantha Hegseth, “hid from Hegseth in her closet because she felt it was for her personal safety.” There was fear.”
She also said that Samantha Hegseth had given her a code word, shared with her and the other person, that she would use if she needed help. According to the affidavit, Samantha Hegseth texted a code word to Daniel Hegseth once in 2015 or 2016, and Daniels contacted the other person to set the plan in motion.
Daniel Hegseth said he “did not personally witness physical or sexual abuse by Hegseth,” but described “mischievous and aggressive behavior” by him over the years. She also described several instances around 2008 or 2009, as well as 2013, in which she saw Mr Hegseth intoxicated.
The new allegations are strikingly similar to a raft of accusations that have already surfaced since Mr Trump was chosen to lead the Pentagon. Mr Hegseth has vehemently denied the allegations and dismissed them as politically motivated from anonymous sources.
Mr Hegseth’s lawyer, Tim Parlatore, denied Daniel Hegseth’s allegations in a statement.
“Sam has never alleged that there was any abuse, he signed court documents admitting that there was no abuse and recently confirmed this during his FBI interview,” Mr. Parlatore accused Daniel Hegseth of being an “anti-Trump far left.” Democrat” who had “an ax to grind against the whole Hegseth family.”
Samantha Hegseth shares custody of the three children with Mr. Hegseth. She was interviewed by the FBI this month as part of a background check on her ex-husband. In an interview, she told investigators that Mr. Hegseth was abusive and continued to abuse alcohol, according to a person with knowledge of the findings. The FBI had no comment.
Ms Hegseth could not be reached for comment on Tuesday. In a statement to NBC News on Monday, before Danielle Hegseth filed her detailed affidavit, she said “there was no physical abuse in my marriage” and that she would not discuss the matter further.
In a 2021 order dealing with the appointment of a parenting coordinator, a Minnesota family court judge said neither Pat nor Samantha Hegseth claimed to be a victim of domestic abuse. The judge also said there was no determination by the court that there was probable cause to believe that one parent “has been physically abused or threatened with physical abuse by the other parent.”
The Times and other media organizations have already documented Mr. Hegseth’s pattern of excessive drinking, although his former sister-in-law provided new details in her sworn statement. As for allegations that his behavior was so out of control that Samantha Hegseth felt she needed to protect herself from him, that’s Daniel Hegseth’s word against Mr. Hegseth, a court document in his own right. Referring to
Still, his affidavit marks the first time a former member of Mr. Hegseth’s extended family has publicly alleged that his personal conduct makes him unfit to lead the Pentagon. Mr Hegseth’s mother wrote in a 2018 email to her son that he had abused women for years, but had since denied those feelings.
Mr Hegseth was also accused of sexually assaulting a woman while intoxicated in Monterey, California in 2017. He has said the encounter was consensual and he was never charged with a crime, although he did pay financial compensation to the woman who made the accusation.
According to people familiar with their relationship, Samantha Hegseth treated Daniel Hegseth as a confidante. Danielle was married to Pat Hegseth’s brother Nathaniel from 2011 to 2019. Samantha and Pat Hegseth were married from 2010 to 2018.
During his confirmation hearing, Senator Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia, asked Mr. Hegseth if he had ever physically abused any of his three wives.
“Senator, not at all,” replied Mr. Hegseth. Asked whether physical violence against a spouse should disqualify a nominee, he dismissed the question as hypothetical.
Mr Hegseth described various other allegations as “anonymous smears”. Although he never admitted to personal abuse, he spoke loudly about being a changed man.
“I am not a perfect person, but salvation is real,” he told senators. He also credits his current wife Jennifer Rochet for “changing my life”.
Many of the allegations in Daniel Hegseth’s affidavit detailed episodes of Mr. Hegseth’s apparent drunkenness, and in some, he said, he made racial statements that he found offensive.
“He drunkenly screamed in my face one night in 2009,” she wrote, recalling that Mr. Hegseth became upset when he left a room while he was telling a story with “racial slant.” with that which troubled me.”
“He was very aggressive, in my face, dressed in his military uniform,” she added.
In 2013, she said, Mr. Hegseth drank so much at a family dinner at a Minneapolis restaurant that an Uber driver then had to pull over on an interstate highway so he could vomit. At another bar that same year, he said, Mr. Hegseth danced drunkenly with a glass of gin and tonic in each hand, spilled the glass on the dance floor and had to be dragged out of the bar.
He said he told the FBI about another incident that happened in 2009 but said he didn’t know about it beforehand. He said he was told that after an exercise with the National Guard, Mr. Hegseth was found drunk and in uniform, lap dancing at a nearby strip club.
He said that the person who told him about the incident said that his conduct was a violation of military rules. The man’s name was redacted in the affidavit obtained by The Times.
On Tuesday, some rank-and-file Republicans were quick to dismiss Daniel Hegseth’s sworn accusations, likening them to the sexual assault allegations against Brett Cavanagh during his confirmation hearings in 2018, but ultimately up to the Supreme Court. His path was not removed.
“It kind of reminds me of Kavanaugh, when everyone was trying to butcher him and his character,” Sen. Marquin Mullen, Republican of Oklahoma and a member of the Armed Services panel, told reporters Tuesday evening. “The media and those who do this should be ashamed of themselves. And that’s one thing. Pat is going to be secretary of defense — period.
Democrats reviewing Daniel Hegseth’s affidavit on Tuesday said they were stunned by the allegations. Many of them said the FBI had not done enough.
“It’s clear that the FBI did not act on the leads it was given and rushed through an incomplete report,” Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, told reporters Tuesday.
Maya C. Miller, Robert Jameson, Carl Hulse And Devlin Barrett Cooperation reporting. Kitty Bennett And Julie Tate participated in the research.
