Senators have reviewed an affidavit containing new alcohol abuse and domestic abuse allegations against Trump’s defense secretary nominee, Pete Hegseth — the same week that Hegseth’s nomination could go before the entire Senate.
The existence of the new affidavit, which contains sworn testimony from Danielle Hegseth, the ex-wife of Hegseth’s brother, was first reported by NBC News and has been independently verified by HuffPost.
According to the affidavit, Danielle Hegseth said that Pete Hegseth’s second wife, Samantha Hegseth, repeatedly feared for her safety during their marriage. Samantha Hegseth even once described hiding from her husband in a closet, the affidavit said.
“As I told the FBI, I believe Hegseth has an alcohol abuse problem and was abusive to his ex-wife Samantha,” Danielle Hegseth said, adding that Pete Hegseth regularly abused alcohol to the point of passing out at family gatherings.
Both Hegseth and his second wife denied there was physical abuse in their marriage, which lasted from 2010 to 2018. The two had three children together.
“Sam has never alleged that there was any abuse, she signed court documents acknowledging that there was no abuse and recently reaffirmed the same during her FBI interview,” Hegseth’s lawyer, Tim Parlatore, told NBC.
Danielle Hegseth also wrote in the affidavit that she “heard Hegseth say that women should not have the right to vote and that they should not work.”
On Monday, the Senate Armed Services Committee advanced along party lines Hegseth’s nomination to the full Senate for a vote that could happen as soon as this week. There’s likely to be a partisan battle over the nomination, but so far no Republican has said they won’t back him for defense secretary, a role overseeing millions of personnel across every branch of the armed forces.
“It seems like there are conflicting accounts,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who is undecided on the nomination, told reporters on Tuesday after briefly looking over the affidavit.
Danielle Hegseth’s sworn statement was in response to a request from Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, seeking information about Pete Hegseth’s fitness for the role of the nation’s top military official, NBC reported. Senate Democrats have complained the FBI neglected to interview key witnesses about allegations of sexual assault, financial mismanagement and excessive drinking in Hegseth’s past.
Danielle Hegseth was reportedly interviewed by the FBI in late December but the substance of that interview was not shared with high-ranking members of the Armed Services Committee ahead of last week’s confirmation hearing.
Hegseth, a former Fox News host and one of Trump’s most controversial Cabinet picks, denied the earlier claims of abuse in his confirmation hearing last week, but vowed, if confirmed, not to drink on the job.
Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat on the Armed Services committee, told HuffPost the latest allegations are “very significant” and that they contradict Hegseth’s testimony.
“Already there was enough in the record, in my view, to defeat his nomination. The question now is really whether Republican colleagues could be swayed by this additional evidence,” Blumenthal said.
But Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), the chairman of the committee, said he had “grave doubts as to the substance” of the new allegations even though he said had yet to read the affidavit.
“I will look at that, I think she has an ax to grind,” Wicker told reporters on Tuesday. He added, “I think the nomination is going to go forward.”
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