During the questioning of Pete Hegseth, the President-elect Donald Trump's defense pick, Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat of the Senate Armed Services Committee, raised concerns about the transparency of the FBI report on Hegseth. Reed requested that the FBI report be made public to the entire committee, as only Reed and committee Chair Roger Wicker had seen the report, while other members were not briefed as per committee practices.
Reed expressed his belief that the FBI investigation was insufficient, noting that key individuals, including Hegseth's ex-wives and the woman who accused him of sexual assault in 2017, were not interviewed by the FBI. It remains unclear whether the FBI did not contact these individuals or if they declined to be interviewed.
Furthermore, Reed and other committee members, both Democrats and Republicans, requested to be briefed on the contents of the FBI report. However, Wicker, the committee chair, stated that there would only be one round of questioning during the hearing, with each senator allotted seven minutes for questioning.
Wicker emphasized that the committee would not deviate from the established precedent of previous hearings involving secretaries of defense. This decision means that the full committee will not have access to the FBI report, and there will be no additional rounds of questioning beyond the initial seven-minute session for each senator.
