WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary-designee Pete Hegseth is demanding a file from the Monterey County, Calif., district attorney’s office that his legal team believes may contain additional exonerating information about a 2017 sexual assault allegation against him, The Post can reveal.
The records request comes as some Democrats continue to cast doubt on the former Fox News personality’s innocence despite the release of a police file with details contradicting his accuser’s account.
The memorandum underpinning the decision not to prosecute Hegseth is believed to describe an earlier allegation of sexual misconduct made by the same woman in a different jurisdiction, Hegseth attorney Tim Parlatore said.
“As part of our investigation, we received credible information indicating that she may have made a similar false allegation against another man in the past and the DA may have relied upon this as part of their determination, in addition to other witnesses who contradicted her story,” Parlatore told The Post.
The Monterey County DA’s office, led by elected district attorney Jeannine Pacioni, on Friday declined to provide the documentation in response to a request from Parlatore — saying in its reply that “[t]he records you request are exempt from disclosure.”
“Your request for memoranda contains the opinions, conclusions, impressions, legal research and/or legal theories of the handling attorney[s]. These constitute core work product and are exempt from disclosure under the Public Records Act,” says the reply signed by Pacioni and her chief assistant Berkley Brannon.
Parlatore is appealing the denial.
It’s possible that Senate Republicans, who will retake the upper chamber in January, will subpoena the document, but that step could slow his confirmation.
Democrats have suggested that the top Pentagon pick may not have been cleared of wrongdoing — with some pointing out that Hegseth reached a financial arrangement with the woman to not air what he says would have been false allegations.
“Remember that we’ve just fought over a decade of fights … and overhauled the military and its treatment of military sexual trauma,” Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) said in a CBS News interview Sunday.
“It’s frankly an insult and really troubling that Mr. Trump would nominate someone who has admitted that he’s paid off a victim who has claimed rape allegations against him.”
Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) said Sunday on MSNBC that “as a former federal prosecutor, I can tell you that there’s a difference between not bringing charges and fully clearing someone — and he is in no way been fully cleared.”
The police report in the case was released last week and revealed that evidence refuted details in the story of Hegseth’s unidentified accuser, resulting in the decision not to charge Hegseth with a crime.
Hotel security footage and witness testimony revealed that the woman did not appear to be intoxicated immediately before she and Hegseth had what he said was consensual sex — despite her telling authorities that “things got fuzzy” while she was drinking with him at a hotel bar and she couldn’t remember going to his room.
The woman said she could remember Hegseth following her out of the bar and then having an argument with him near the hotel’s pool over his allegedly inappropriate behavior toward other women.
But hotel security camera footage showed investigators that Hegseth’s accuser “did not have an unsteady gait” when leaving the bar around 1:15 a.m. on the Sunday in question — and that she was “smiling” and had her “arms locked together” with Hegseth.
A hotel employee and other witnesses said she did not seem intoxicated.
The hotel staff member said other guests complained about “a disturbance” near the pool after Hegseth and the woman left the bar.
“Hegseth told [the employee] that he had freedom of speech. Jane Doe intervened and told [the employee] that they were Republicans and apologized for Hegseth’s actions,” according to the police report.
“[The employee] stated that Jane Doe placed her hand and arm on the back of Hegseth and escorted him toward building 4 and 5 … [The employee] stated Hegseth was very intoxicated [and] Jane Doe was not intoxicated, was standing on her own and was very coherent.”
The Monterey district attorney’s office did not respond to The Post’s request for comment on the appeal from Hegseth’s legal team.
