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Selina Wang

@selinawangtv

New Yorker is reporting that “a trail of documents, corroborated by the accounts of former colleagues, indicates that Hegseth was forced to step down by both of the two nonprofit advocacy groups that he ran—Veterans for Freedom and Concerned Veterans for America—in the face of serious allegations of financial mismanagement, sexual impropriety, and personal misconduct."

Cites a whistleblower report that states Hegseth was repeatedly intoxicated while acting in his official capacity, to the point of needing to be carried out of the organization’s events.

It also states that Hegseth sexually pursued the organization’s female staffers.

and that under Hegseth’s leadership, the organization became a hostile workplace that ignored serious accusations of impropriety.

5:30 PM · Dec 2, 2024

https://x.com/selinawangtv/status/1863712316992409658

>>22096503

https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/30/politics/pete-hegseth-mother-email-new-york-times/index.html

The mother of Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Defense, sent an email to her son in 2018 that sharply criticized his treatment of women, The New York Times reported Friday.

Penelope Hegseth told her son in the email that there are “many” women whom he has “abused in some way” and encouraged him to “get some help,” according to the email published by The Times.

The email’s partial publication comes as Pete Hegseth, a veteran and former Fox News host with no prior government experience, is expected to face a tough Senate confirmation process, including questions about a sexual assault allegation from October 2017. No charges were filed against Hegseth related to the incident, and he has denied the accusation, claiming the sexual encounter was consensual.

According to The Times’ report, Penelope Hegseth wrote, “I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around and uses women for his own power and ego. You are that man (and have been for years) and as your mother, it pains me and embarrasses me to say that, but it is the sad, sad truth.”

Penelope Hegseth on Friday told The New York Times that she wrote the email “in anger, with emotion” and that she had immediately apologized in a separate email. She went on to defend her son, saying her own characterization of his treatment of women in the 2018 email “has never been true.”

CNN has reached out to Penelope Hegseth for comment. An attorney for Pete Hegseth declined to comment.

Penelope Hegseth sent the email to her son on April 30, 2018, according to The Times’ report — around six months after the alleged assault. The email was sent in connection with her son’s divorce from his second wife, The Times reported.

Steven Cheung, Trump’s communications director, said in a statement shared with CNN on Saturday that Penelope Hegseth’s email is “an out-of-context snippet.”

“The New York Times and other outlets are despicable for using an out-of-context snippet of an illegally-obtained private email exchange between a mother and her son that does not accurately reflect the entirety of the conversation,” Cheung said. “In subsequent emails, Mrs. Hegseth expressed regret for her emotional message and apologized.”

CNN has previously reported that a woman accused Pete Hegseth of sexually assaulting her in the early morning hours of October 8, 2017, in Monterey, California, where Hegseth had a speaking engagement the night before. The accuser told police that Hegseth physically blocked her from leaving a hotel room, took her phone and then sexually assaulted her.

Years later, Hegseth paid the accuser in a settlement agreement that included a confidentiality clause, his attorney Timothy Parlatore told CNN in a statement earlier this month. Parlatore said Hegseth settled because it was during the “Me Too” movement and he didn’t want to lose his job at Fox News if the accusation became public. The statement did not share how much the accuser was paid as part of the settlement, although Parlatore said it was “a significantly reduced amount.”

After the allegation surfaced earlier this month, Hegseth told Republicans on a prayer call that “the battle is just beginning” as he faces skepticism around his confirmation.

During the call, Hegseth said that his family has received “an outpouring of support” since Trump announced the pick, adding: “That’s the reason why we can endure the attacks and the onslaughts.”

Trump’s allies have defended Hegseth, with Sen. Markwayne Mullin — who serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee, which would hold confirmation hearings for Hegseth — telling CNN’s Dana Bash that he “absolutely” believes Hegseth’s side of the story and that the allegation “doesn’t prevent Pete from going forward with this.” Mullin underscored that Hegseth was not charged with any wrongdoing and said that the police report on the incident supports Hegseth’s version of the encounter on October 8.

Correction: This story has been updated to clarify that Peter Hegseth is a former Fox News host.

>>22096503

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/pete-hegseths-secret-history

After the recent revelation that Pete Hegseth had secretly paid a financial settlement to a woman who had accused him of raping her in 2017, President-elect Donald Trump stood by his choice of Hegseth to become the next Secretary of Defense. Trump’s communications director, Steven Cheung, issued a statement noting that Hegseth, who has denied wrongdoing, has not been charged with any crime. “President Trump is nominating high-caliber and extremely qualified candidates to serve in his administration,” Cheung maintained.

But Hegseth’s record before becoming a full-time Fox News TV host, in 2017, raises additional questions about his suitability to run the world’s largest and most lethal military force. A trail of documents, corroborated by the accounts of former colleagues, indicates that Hegseth was forced to step down by both of the two nonprofit advocacy groups that he ran—Veterans for Freedom and Concerned Veterans for America—in the face of serious allegations of financial mismanagement, sexual impropriety, and personal misconduct.

A previously undisclosed whistle-blower report on Hegseth’s tenure as the president of Concerned Veterans for America, from 2013 until 2016, describes him as being repeatedly intoxicated while acting in his official capacity—to the point of needing to be carried out of the organization’s events. The detailed seven-page report—which was compiled by multiple former C.V.A. employees and sent to the organization’s senior management in February, 2015—states that, at one point, Hegseth had to be restrained while drunk from joining the dancers on the stage of a Louisiana strip club, where he had brought his team. The report also says that Hegseth, who was married at the time, and other members of his management team sexually pursued the organization’s female staffers, whom they divided into two groups—the “party girls” and the “not party girls.” In addition, the report asserts that, under Hegseth’s leadership, the organization became a hostile workplace that ignored serious accusations of impropriety, including an allegation made by a female employee that another employee on Hegseth’s staff had attempted to sexually assault her at the Louisiana strip club. In a separate letter of complaint, which was sent to the organization in late 2015, a different former employee described Hegseth being at a bar in the early-morning hours of May 29, 2015, while on an official tour through Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, drunkenly chanting “Kill All Muslims! Kill All Muslims!”

In response to questions from this magazine, Tim Parlatore, a lawyer for Hegseth, replied with the following statement, which he said came from “an advisor” to Hegseth: “We’re not going to comment on outlandish claims laundered through The New Yorker by a petty and jealous disgruntled former associate of Mr. Hegseth’s. Get back to us when you try your first attempt at actual journalism.”

Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut and a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, described the report of Hegseth’s drinking as alarming and disqualifying. In a phone interview, Blumenthal, who currently leads the Senate committee that will review Hegseth’s nomination, told me, “Much as we might be sympathetic to people with continuing alcohol problems, they shouldn’t be at the top of our national-security structure.” Blumenthal went on, “It’s dangerous. The Secretary of Defense is involved in every issue of national security. He’s involved in the use of nuclear weapons. He’s the one who approves sending troops into combat. He approves drone strikes that may involve civilian casualties. Literally life-and-death issues are in the hands of the Secretary of Defense, and entrusting these kinds of issues to someone who might be incapacitated for any reason is a risk we cannot take.”

>>22096528

cont'd

Blumenthal noted that an earlier nominee for Secretary of Defense, Senator John Tower, a Republican from Texas, was voted down by his Senate colleagues in 1989 because of concerns about his drinking and womanizing. It was the first time that the Cabinet pick of a newly elected President, in this case George H. W. Bush, was rejected by the Senate. “John Tower went down for these same kinds of issues,” Blumenthal said. “I don’t think it’s a partisan issue.”

In January, 2016, Hegseth resigned from Concerned Veterans for America, under pressure. An account in the Military Times said that Hegseth had “quietly resigned,” in a decision that was “mutual” with the organization, amid “rumors of a rift between the former C.E.O. and the group’s financial backers.” Hegseth, who had no other job lined up at the time, gave no explanation for his departure, other than saying, “Sometimes it just makes sense to make a transition.” C.V.A., for its part, released a statement saying that it thanked Hegseth “for his many contributions” and wished him well. But, according to three knowledgeable sources, one of whom contributed to the whistle-blower report, Hegseth was forced to step down from the organization in part because of concerns about his mismanagement and abuse of alcohol on the job.

“Congratulations on Removing Pete Hegseth” is the subject line of an e-mail, obtained by The New Yorker, that was sent to Hegseth’s successor as president of the group, Jae Pak, on January 15, 2016. The e-mail, sent under a pseudonym by one of the whistle-blowers, included a copy of the report, and went on to say, “Among the staff, the disgust for Pete was pretty high. Most veterans do not think he represents them nor their high standard of excellence.” The e-mail also stated that Hegseth had “a history of alcohol abuse” and had “treated the organization funds like they were a personal expense account—for partying, drinking, and using CVA events as little more than opportunities to ‘hook up’ with women on the road.”

Pak, who had served as C.V.A.’s chief operating officer before taking over its presidency, and who no longer works there, declined to comment. A spokesman at Americans for Prosperity, the umbrella political group run by the far-right billionaire Koch family—under whose auspices Concerned Veterans for America was launched, in 2011—confirmed that Hegseth had resigned but declined to comment further on personnel matters. Breitbart News, a publication that acts as a publicist for Trump, attempted to discredit this article before it was published by claiming that it would be citing a “screed” about Hegseth written by a “jealous former coworker” who had been “fired.” In fact, the report disclosed in this article is not the same document, although there are some overlaps. (Nearly a dozen employees were laid off by C.V.A. during the time Hegseth worked there, and the proliferation of critical memos and letters to the group’s management speaks to the high level of discontent within the organization.)

The whistle-blower report makes extensive allegations. It describes several top managers being involved in drunken episodes, including an altercation at a casino and a hotel Christmas party at which food was thrown from the balcony. Hegseth, it says, was “seen drunk at multiple CVA events” between 2013 and 2015, a time when the organization was engaged in an ambitious nationwide effort to mobilize veterans to vote for conservative candidates and causes. The project gave Hegseth and his team the opportunity to travel far from the organization’s headquarters, in northern Virginia. Hegseth and his team gave speeches, assisted conservative campaigns, and collected voter data valuable for the Kochs’ political operation. As a decorated veteran who by 2014 had become an on-air contributor to Fox News, Hegseth was the public face of the group’s mission, conducting a whistle-stop tour with his team from city to city, packaged by C.V.A. as the Defend Freedom Tour.

>>22096532

cont'd

I spoke at length with two people who identified themselves as having contributed to the whistle-blower report. One of them said of Hegseth, “I’ve seen him drunk so many times. I’ve seen him dragged away not a few times but multiple times. To have him at the Pentagon would be scary,” adding, “When those of us who worked at C.V.A. heard he was being considered for SecDef, it wasn’t ‘No,’ it was ‘Hell No!’ ” According to the complaint, at one such C.V.A. event in Virginia Beach, on Memorial Day weekend in 2014, Hegseth was “totally sloshed” and needed to be carried to his room because “he was so intoxicated.” The following month, during an event in Cleveland, Hegseth, who had gone with his team to a bar around the corner from their hotel, was described as “completely drunk in a public place.” According to the report, “several high profile people” who attended the organization’s event “were very disappointed to see this kind of public behavior,” though the report does not identify them.

In October, 2014, C.V.A. instituted a “no alcohol” policy at its events. But the next month, according to the report, Hegseth and another manager lifted the policy while overseeing a get-out-the-vote field operation to boost Republican candidates in North Carolina. According to the report, on the evening before the election, Hegseth, who had been out with three young female staff members, was so inebriated by 1 a.m. that a staffer who had driven him to his hotel, in a van full of other drunken staffers, asked for assistance to get Hegseth to his room. “Pete was completely passed out in the middle seat, slumped over” a young female staff member, the report says. It took two male staff members to get Hegseth into the hotel; after one young woman vomited in some bushes, another helped him into bed. In the morning, a team member had to wake Hegseth so that he didn’t miss his flight. “All of this happened in public,” according to the report, while C.V.A. was “embedded” in the Republican get-out-the-vote effort. It went on, “Everyone who saw this was disgusted and in shock that the head of the team was that intoxicated.”

According to the report, a volunteer for the organization during this period was so concerned about the rampant promiscuity and sexism that she sent an e-mail to C.V.A.’s headquarters complaining about a lack of professionalism, an unhealthy workplace, and an atmosphere in which women were unfairly treated. According to the whistle-blower with whom I spoke, the volunteer received no response. The New Yorker was unable to reach the volunteer, but a source unconnected to C.V.A. confirmed that the volunteer had also spoken to him about having sent an e-mail to the group’s top management because she had been upset by Hegseth’s frequent drunkenness.

In late November, 2014, Hegseth and his team deployed to Louisiana for a U.S. Senate runoff. This is when, according to the whistle-blower complaint, Hegseth took the C.V.A. team to the strip club, where “he was so drunk he tried to get on the stage and dance with the strippers.” A female C.V.A. associate, the report says, “had to get him off of the stage,” adding, “She had to intervene with security to prevent him from getting thrown out.” The whistle-blower continued, as if in disbelief, “A Fox News contributor, with the rank of captain (at the time) in the National Guard, and the CEO of a veterans’ organization . . . was in a strip club trying to dance with strippers.”

>>22096535

cont'd

Meanwhile, the female staffer who had to restrain Hegseth at the strip club alleged that a different male staff member had attempted to sexually assault her there, according to the report. A C.V.A. manager, however, was described as dismissive, for arguing that her attacker had been drunk and therefore shouldn’t be held responsible. According to the report, the female staffer took steps to file a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and C.V.A. hired outside counsel. The female staffer declined to be interviewed. But, according to a source aware of the case, the matter was settled with a payment to the staffer, concealed by a nondisclosure agreement. As a result, the woman was “ostracized” and “experiencing reprisal” by the organization, which, the whistle-blower report said, “has become a hostile and intimidating working environment.” Another female staff member was also described as having been sexually harassed by a colleague, but was too intimidated to come forward “because she desperately needs her job.” The report declared, in bold print, “Fear of reprisal looms over every woman associated with the organization.”

In December, 2014, the group held an office Christmas party at the Grand Hyatt in Washington. Once again, according to the report, Hegseth was “noticeably intoxicated and had to be carried up to his room.” The report stated, “His behavior was embarrassing in front of the team, but not surprising; people have simply come to expect Pete to get drunk at social events.”

The 2015 federal tax filing by C.V.A. has an unusual note saying that “major programs developed in the last fiscal year were paused,” and it describes Hegseth as “President (outgoing).” By the start of 2016, Hegseth, who had been paid a salary of $177,460, was out of his job.

>>22096537

cont'd

A separate letter obtained by The New Yorker, which was e-mailed by a different staffer on November, 2015, to Pak, Hegseth’s successor, expresses the upset that Hegseth’s behavior caused. “The organization is owed the truth,” the staffer wrote before he described two incidents that, he said, “change my perception of Mr. Pete Hegseth,” especially “as the face of C.V.A.” He went on to recount what took place in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. On May 29, 2015, the staffer said, Hegseth and someone travelling with the group’s Defend Freedom Tour closed down the bar at the Sheraton Suites Hotel. The duo yelled “Kill All Muslims” multiple times, in what the staffer described as “a drunk and a violent manner.” Hegseth’s “despicable behavior,” he wrote, “embarrassed the entire organization.” He went on, “I personally was ashamed and . . . others were as well.” The staffer’s letter cited a second incident in which, he wrote, Hegseth “passed out” in the back of a party bus, then urinated in front of a hotel where C.V.A.’s team was staying. “I tell you this because it’s the truth,” the letter concluded. “And I sincerely care about the mission of C.VA and the future of my kids and the country.”

Reached for comment, the author of the letter said, “If you print that, I will deny I wrote it.” When he was reminded that it had been sent from the same personal e-mail account that he still uses, he said, “I don’t care. I’ll just say it never happened.”

Hegseth has been open about resorting to alcohol during a period in his life when he had returned to the U.S. from active military duty and felt lost. In a 2022 interview with the Reserve & National Guard Magazine, he said that, after coming home, he felt isolated and unmoored.

Raised in Minnesota, Hegseth signed up for the Army R.O.T.C. in 2001 while attending Princeton, where he majored in politics and published the Princeton Tory, a pugnacious conservative journal that lambasted liberalism on campus. He published a commentary by another student mocking the view, expressed during the school’s orientation program, that sex with an unconscious partner constituted rape. As first reported online by the newsletter “Popular Information,” run by Judd Legum, the commentary claimed that rape required both a failure to consent and “duress,” which a passed-out woman couldn’t experience.

You can read the rest at link : https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/pete-hegseths-secret-history

>>22096618

His own mother's email gave him away.

>>22096697

> https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/pete-hegseths-secret-history

"In 2004, Hegseth had married his first of three wives, his high-school girlfriend from Minnesota, Meredith Schwarz. But he often lived apart from her while working in Washington, staying at a pool house owned by the parents of one of her college friends. In 2008, Schwarz filed for divorce after Hegseth admitted to multiple infidelities—his wife later learned that a journalist he’d introduced her to was among those with whom he was having an affair. The couple divorced in 2009."

>>22096711

>Hegseth admitted to multiple infidelities

>>22096774

>>22096769

They are the ones that phone interviewed her anon. What are you not understanding?

>>22096792

Don't get mad, because you can't defend what I am supplying.