Text messages sent by Pete Hegseth's sexual misconduct accuser emerge, cast doubts on account

As President-elect Donald Trump continues to round out selections for his Cabinet and other top officials in his incoming administration, thoughts now turn to the confirmation process, particularly for those dogged by controversies large and small.

Pete Hegseth, Trump's choice to lead the Pentagon, has been the subject of some doubt, given a past allegation of sexual misconduct, but text messages sent by his accuser have recently come forward, as the Daily Mail reports, casting doubt among many about the veracity of her story.

Assault claims resurface

The accusation that has threatened to derail Hegseth's nomination to lead the Department of Defense stems from an incident that occurred in October 2017 at a convention of Republican women at the Monterey, California Hyatt Regency Hotel for which he served as keynote speaker.

Hegseth's eventual accuser, referred to in subsequent legal documents as Jane Doe, was also in attendance at the event, and over the course of the day and evening in question, she had a number of interactions with the then-Fox News personality.

It was the pair's final interaction in the early morning hours which subsequently led to a claim of sexual assault later being leveled against Hegseth, though he has long maintained that the encounter was consensual.

In the aftermath of the events at issue, Jane doe filed a police report claiming assault at the hands of Hegseth, but after an investigation of the facts, no charges were filed.

Text messages emerge

Amid Hegseth's candidacy to become Defense secretary in the new Trump administration, key evidence, including text messages sent by Jane Doe at the time of the alleged assault, have come into the public eye, painting a picture of a woman who seemed oddly fascinated by the conference's top speaker and who may have had immediate regret for engaging in an extramarital liaison with him.

Messages sent by Doe to an unnamed recipient -- now thought to be her husband -- began by asking, “Do you know Pete Hegseth? and then noting that the women at the convention were “freaking drooling over him.”

Doe later texted “This Pete due is a...toooool” and, after drinking a significant amount of alcohol over the course of the day, reportedly engaged in a heated disagreement with Hegseth over the flirty way she said he was behaving toward some of the attendees.

Somehow, according to witnesses and surveillance video, the pair ended up leaving together and that is when Doe stopped texting the aforementioned recipient, who was presumably her husband, for a period of time, only to tell him later that she had fallen asleep in a friend's room.

Journalist Megyn Kelly has suggested that these messages are precisely why charges were never filed against Hegseth, noting, “The husband is saying to her, you're never out this late, it's 2 a.m. Then the text message cuts off. He says, 'Where are you? Are you okay?' [to] no response. And she was seen going to Pete Hegseth's room at 1:30 a.m., so by 2, she's there. The communication with the husband ends while she's in Pete's room. She doesn't respond to any of those texts, he gets u p and looks for her, and within two hours she's home.”

Referencing surveillance video reviewed by police, Kelly added, “At 1:30 a.m. on the tape, she doesn't look intoxicated; in the bar she doesn't look intoxicated, and here we are at 4 a.m., and the husband is saying she doesn't look intoxicated, [saying,] 'she wasn't having a hard time walking,' 'she was not slurring her words.'”

Confirmation in the balance

Though it remains to be seen whether Hegseth will garner sufficient confirmation support from senators to become Defense secretary, Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) believes that his nomination alone is already making a positive difference in the ranks of the U.S. military.

According to Hagerty, Hegseth has been receiving communications from current soldiers who have told him that despite having previously entertained thoughts of leaving the service due to woke policies and misguided priorities from the top, the prospect of his confirmation has persuaded them to stay in, with the senator declaring, “That's the type of inspirational leader we need to see. Don't let these allegations distract us. What we need is real, significant change.”