The woman who accused Pete Hegseth of sexually assaulting her in October 2017 told a male friend he, ‘creeps me out,’ in a text exchange that took place just hours before the alleged assault.
The messages, obtained by DailyMail.com were sent to a close male associate. They reveal her distaste for the former Fox News presenter whom she claims not to recognize and over whom, she notes, ‘our ladies are freaking drooling’.
The woman – identified only as Jane Doe – had attended a convention at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Monterey, California, where Hegseth was also in attendance.
In the texts sent on October 7 Doe asks: ‘Do you know Pete Hegseth?’ to which the respondent replies: ‘Name sounds familiar…Who is he?’
Doe states: ‘He is a Fox contributor. I guess does outnumbered and fox and friends. Any way our ladies are freaking drooling over him.’
She then sends a picture of Hegseth at a podium and notes: ‘He wears a ring on his pointer finger. It creeps me out.’
DailyMail.com has learned that the event was the California Federation of Republican Women’s 40th Biennial convention at which Trump’s increasingly embattled nominee for Defense Secretary was the keynote speaker.
Later that evening Doe texts: ‘This Pete dude is a …tooooool.’
Asked, ‘How’s that?’ She responds, ‘I’ll tell you when I get back hopefully soon,’ in a text sent at almost 2am.
The texts are contained in the 23-page Monterey Police Department report generated in connection with the incident after a nurse at Kaiser Permanente Hospital contacted officers when the woman came in asking for a sexual assault examination.
She claimed that the assault had taken place at Monterey’s Hyatt Hotel some time on the night of October 7 or in the early hours of October 8, 2017.
She told officers that on the night in question there was a banquet which went on longer than expected followed by an afterparty in the Presidential Suite at which she drank champagne.
She then went with a group of women to Knuckles Sports Bar, attached to the hotel where, she said, ‘things got fuzzy’.
Doe did not remember how much she drank but told officers she had consumed, ‘much more than normal alcoholic beverages throughout the day’.
By her account Doe did not like the way Hegseth, 44, who was present at the bar was behaving towards many of the women in the group accusing him of groping several.
According to the account attributed to her, ‘Hegseth would rub the women on their legs and Jane Doe thought that his actions were inappropriate. Jane Doe texted…that Hegseth was given off a ‘creeper’ vibe. The women thought Hegseth was ‘dreamy’ and wanted pictures with Hegseth.’
Doe told officers she remembered walking out of the bar and that Hegseth must have followed her as they argued by the pool over his behavior in the bar. She remembered Hegseth telling her ‘that he was a nice guy.’
The next thing Doe recalled was being in a hotel room with no recollection of how she got there and Hegseth blocking the door with his body. The report states, ‘Jane Doe remembered saying ‘no’ a lot. Jane Doe stated she did not remember much else.’
Her next memory was of Hegseth’s dog-tags ‘hovering over her face,’ and him bare-chested over her. The next memory she had was when Hegseth ejaculated over her stomach then threw her a towel and asked, ‘Are you okay?’
Police spoke to witnesses who recalled a couple arguing loudly by the pool and a hotel staff member who attempted to intervene only to have Hegseth ‘curse’ at him.
According to that worker Doe apologized on his behalf and escorted Hegseth from the pool.
Another one of the women present that night recalled repeatedly rebuffing Hegseth’s advances and clear attempts, she alleged, to have sex with her.
Speaking to police in the aftermath of the night she claimed that, during a conversation at Knuckles, Hegseth put his hand on her knee – she, ‘made it clear that his hand on her knee was not acceptable’.
Despite this, she told officers she did not feel uncomfortable but that Hegseth, ‘had invited her back to his hotel room. [She] stated she politely declined the invitation.
‘[She] stated she gained the attention of Jane Doe and had Jane Doe become a “crotch blocker.” A crotch blocker is a street term used to describe someone’s actions used to prevent someone from having sex.
‘By having Jane Doe join [her] and Hegseth’s conversation, [she] was hoping that Jane Doe’s presence would detour Hegseth’s attempt to have sex with [her].’
At the time Hegseth had been divorced from his second wife, Samantha, 43, – the mother of his three young sons – for barely a month and was a new father to an infant less than two months old.
His mistress, Fox & Friends executive producer Jennifer Rauchet, 47, had just given birth to their daughter, Gwen, that August.
For his part Hegseth did not deny having intercourse with Doe but told police the encounter was entirely consensual.
He told officers that he ‘continuously asked Jane Doe is she was okay because he did not want Jane Doe to get in trouble.’
Doe was married and he reassured her she did not have to worry about him saying anything about their interaction but that he noted as she left, she was showing ‘early signs of regret’.
The officer noted: ‘Hegseth did not elaborate on the signs of regret.’
At the end of the report, which was concluded on October 26, 2017, the officer recommended that the case be forwarded to the Monterey County Attorney’s Office for review.
They did not bring any charges, but Hegseth has admitted to paying the woman to head off any lawsuit out of fear that he would lose his job at Fox.
His lawyer, Timothy Parlatore, has described Doe as the ‘aggressor’ on the evening in question and slammed her actions as tantamount to blackmail.
‘He was falsely accused, and my position is that he was the victim of blackmail,’ Parlatore said.
According to Parlatore this was nothing more than a case of ‘successful extortion’.