Pete Hegseth’s name has been submitted to the FBI for a background check, his attorney told CNN Thursday, as some lawmakers call for more vetting of President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to run the Pentagon.
“He received the forms yesterday from the FBI, and we’re working on them right now,” attorney Timothy Parlatore told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on “The Source,” when asked whether Trump has submitted his name to the FBI.
Hegseth, a military veteran and former television anchor tapped to serve as defense secretary, concluded his first week of meetings on Capitol Hill earlier Thursday as he seeks to shore up support with key senators who will vote on his confirmation. As some continue to hold out support amid a series of allegations related to drinking and sexual misconduct that have emerged since he was chosen for the role, Hegseth has denied the allegations and remained defiant.
The president-elect’s transition team earlier this week paved the way for it to seek the background checks, announcing that it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Justice Department.
“I am expecting that the background check is going to take a lot of the false stories that have been circulated in the media and it’s going to put them completely to bed,” Parlatore said.
After meeting with Hegseth on Wednesday, incoming Senate Armed Services Chairman Roger Wicker said he remained undecided on whether he would support Hegseth’s nomination but added that he was “looking to be supportive.”
Parlatore told Collins on Thursday that he and his client were willing to release to Wicker’s committee a report — the existence of which was revealed by The New Yorker — about allegations of misconduct during Hegseth’s time running a veterans’ organization.
“This document, we have no problem sharing it with the committee,” he said, adding later: “If they ask, I’ll send it right over to them.”
Hegseth faces a tough confirmation process as allegations continue to mount related to his workplace behavior and treatment of women, including a surfaced sexual assault allegation from 2017, which Hegseth has denied.
Years later, Hegseth reached a settlement with the accuser that included a confidentiality clause. Parlatore told CNN earlier this month that Hegseth settled because it was during the #MeToo movement and he didn’t want to lose his job at Fox News if the accusation became public.
The attorney said Thursday that he has sent a notice to the accuser’s attorney that the settlement agreement — which mandated confidentiality from both parties — “no longer has any force in effect” because it has been breached.
“If she wants to go and talk about it, she can do it. I mean, certainly, she would do it at her own peril of a further defamation lawsuit,” he said of the woman.
Parlatore told Collins on Thursday that Hegseth’s legal team would consider bringing a civil lawsuit against the woman if Hegseth is not confirmed.
Responding to the comment later Thursday, Sen. Richard Blumenthal called the suggestion of a lawsuit “reprehensible.”
“Let’s not be too technical here, it’s part of a settlement, but it’s still a gag order,” the Connecticut Democrat told Collins. “Give her the right to tell us, the Armed Services Committee, all she knows, all the truth that she will speak to power and this threat of a lawsuit I think, frankly, is reprehensible.”
