[Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Defense, was pushed out as the head of two veterans’ advocacy organizations amid internal allegations of mismanagement and personal misconduct, The New Yorker reported Sunday.
A whistleblower report alleged that during his time leading one of the nonprofit advocacy groups, Hegseth was repeatedly intoxicated at work events and gatherings with staff. It also alleged that he sexually pursued female staffers, and that the organization ignored another staffer’s alleged sexual misconduct.
The report is the latest scrutiny into Hegseth, a veteran and former Fox News host with no prior government experience, ahead of what’s expected to be a tough Senate confirmation process. It comes on the heels of reports detailing a sexual assault allegation from 2017, which Hegseth has denied and in which no charges were filed.
A Hegseth adviser released a statement calling the allegations “outlandish” and “laundered through The New Yorker by a petty and disgruntled former associate.”
The seven-page whistleblower report was compiled by former employees of Concerned Veterans for America, the advocacy group where Hegseth was president from 2013 to 2016. It alleges that Hegseth had to be restrained from joining the dancers on stage at a Louisiana strip club, and that the organization ignored a female employee’s allegation that another member of Hegseth’s staff attempted to sexually assault her at that strip club.
The report also claims that Hegseth’s management team “sexually pursued” employees and divided the organization’s female staffers into two groups – “party girls” and “not party girls.”
The New Yorker also reported on a separate complaint, which was emailed by a different employee to Hegseth’s successor as head of Concerned Veterans for America in late 2015. The employee alleged that Hegseth and someone traveling with the group’s Defend Freedom Tour closed down a hotel bar and yelled “Kill all Muslims!”
Hegseth has denied allegations of sexual assault and says he settled the case in 2018 because he didn’t want to risk his job at Fox News. His mother has sent him an email criticizing his treatment of women, but later apologized and denied her previous claims.
CNN has contacted Hegseth’s team for comment, but received no response.
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