Senate Democrats have blasted “significant gaps” in Pete Hegseth’s FBI background check after the bureau reportedly did not interview the woman who accused him of sexual assault in 2017.
As Hegseth prepares to be grilled by the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday morning in a bid to secure his position as Donald Trump’s defense secretary, it has emerged that key witnesses were left out of his background check, according to reports.
In 2017, police in Monterey, California, investigated an allegation that an intoxicated Hegseth sexually assaulted a woman — named Jane Doe in the report — in a hotel room after a Republican women’s conference, at one point physically blocking a door and stopping her from leaving, according to a police report. The woman signed an NDA.
The FBI did not interview the woman, according to The Washington Post, and now Democratic senators are arguing the background check on Hegseth is inadequate.
Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, who has not seen the background report, said he was told that “there are significant gaps and inadequacies including the apparent failure to interview some of the potential witnesses or sources of information that are highly relevant.”
“Several of the witnesses were not interviewed by the FBI, even though they wanted to be,” Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois told the Post on Monday, but did not specify the witnesses she was referring to.
Interviews with Hegseth’s ex-wives are also absent from the background check, according to NBC News.
The FBI declined to comment when approached by The Independent.
The serious allegation of sexual assault, which Hegseth denies, accusations of financial mismanagement and misogyny, concerns about his inexperience and relationship with alcohol, are some of the issues that will likely arise for the nominee at Tuesday morning’s no-holds-barred hearing in front of the committee.
Hegseth will give a punchy statement at the beginning of the hearing where he will call for the return of “American warriors” if he is successfully nominated to serve in Trump’s cabinet.
“We are not Republicans or Democrats — we are American warriors. Our standards will be high, and they will be equal,” he will tell the bipartisan panel of senators in his opening statement, Axios reported.
