Fox News host Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to serve as defense secretary, paid a confidential financial settlement to a woman who accused him of sexual assault out of concern that the allegation would lead to his firing from the cable news giant, his lawyer told CBS News. 

Hegseth’s attorney, Timothy Palatore, said the Army veteran reached a confidential settlement agreement to deter his accuser from going forward with a lawsuit, maintaining that he is innocent and the sexual encounter was consensual. Hegseth denies any wrongdoing.

“The reality is that, had they filed [a lawsuit], civil process takes quite a while, and so Fox News likely would have fired him based on the allegation,” said Palatore, adding that the woman and her attorney “knew that simply filing it would cause an immediate horror storm for [Hegseth].” 

Fox News did not respond to an inquiry about when the network found out about Hegseth’s settlement agreement.

Trump’s transition team spoke with Palatore after Hegseth was named as Trump’s nominee defense secretary, the attorney said. He said that he “explained this fully” to them but that he did not know what prior conversations Hegseth had with the transition team, or if they had been informed about the sexual assault allegation and settlement agreement before the announcement of his impending nomination for defense secretary.

“This should have nothing to do with the confirmation process,” he said. 

Trump has indicated that these revelations have not deterred him from Hegseth’s selection as defense secretary. After reports surfaced of the sexual assault accusation, Trump’s communications director Steven Cheung said, “President Trump is nominating high-caliber and extremely qualified candidates to serve in his Administration. Mr. Hegseth has vigorously denied any and all accusations, and no charges were filed.”

The alleged sexual assault took place after midnight on Oct. 8, 2017, at the Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel and Spa. The woman, whose identity has been kept confidential, filed a complaint with the Monterey Police Department four days later alleging that she had been sexually assaulted by Hegseth. The city of Monterey confirmed the 2017 investigation into Hegseth and said in a statement that investigators found the woman had “contusions” on her right thigh. No charges were filed, Palatore said. 

The Washington Post, which first reported the financial payment, obtained what it referred to as a memo that was sent to the Trump transition team by a friend of the accuser alleging Hegseth raped a conservative group staffer in his room after drinking at the hotel bar. According to the Post, the memo states that the day after the incident, the accuser “had a moment of hazy memory of being raped the night before, and had a panic attack.”

CBS News has not seen the memo and cannot verify its contents.

Palatore told CBS News that there is eyewitness testimony and video surveillance footage that allegedly shows the accuser was the “aggressor” in a consensual sexual encounter. “[Hegseth] was intoxicated. She was sober. She was the one grabbing him by the arm and leading him out of the bar to take him upstairs,” he said. 

When asked if CBS News could view the footage, Palatore said, “No.” He also declined to share the names of any eyewitnesses.

CNN reported that it spoke with the alleged victim last week, who “became visibly distraught at the mention of Hegseth’s name.” CNN says she declined to be interviewed at the time and then stopped responding.

Palatore would not share the exact timing of the settlement payment to the woman. He said it occurred “a couple years ago,” emphasizing that it was “well before Trump was even nominated [for the presidency], let alone had named Pete to this position.”

He also declined to disclose the amount of the settlement, only saying it was “far, far less than what she wanted.” He characterized it as “essentially an extortion and blackmail.” 

Two years after the alleged incident, Palatore said that Hegseth was informed the woman was making what they called “false claims” against him and was threatening to sue him. Palatore said that she had lost her job and claimed she needed money. In February of 2020, he sent her a cease-and-desist letter. She went “quiet for a year” before he learned she had found an attorney for her case. 

Trump’s selection of Hegseth has been plagued with controversy. The announcement that the Fox News personality was his choice for secretary of Defense took many in Washington by surprise. “Wow,” responded Alaska Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski upon learning he had been picked to lead the Defense Department. “I just said, wow,” she repeated when asked for her thoughts.

Even Hegseth’s tattoos have attracted scrutiny, specifically the “Deux Vult” tattoo on his inner bicep. The symbolism of that tattoo, which has been tied to extremist groups and the Christian Crusaders, alarmed a member of Hegseth’s National Guard unit, who warned superiors that Hegseth was a potential “insider threat” before President Joe Biden’s inauguration. He was removed from guarding the inauguration.

After The Associated Press reported Hegseth had been flagged as a threat, Vice President-elect JD Vance defended him on social media, accusing the outlet of “attacking Pete Hegseth for having a Christian motto tattooed on his arm.” Hegseth then shared Vance’s tweet, commenting, “They can target me — I don’t give a damn — but this type of targeting of Christians, conservatives, patriots and everyday Americans will stop on DAY ONE at DJT’s DoD.”  

The news of Hegseth’s financial settlement agreement with a confidentiality clause may ring familiar to Trump. The president-elect’s own troubles related to a nondisclosure agreement with adult film star Stormy Daniels led to the New York trial in which he became a convicted felon, as well as the first former (and now future) president to be criminally prosecuted.

Trump was found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records related to an alleged cover-up of the payment to Daniels. He has argued that the verdict should be overturned and the indictment dismissed on the basis, among other things, of the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling.

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Two people were killed and 10 others were wounded in two separate shootings along a New Orleans parade route and celebration attended by thousands on Sunday, authorities said. There were no immediate arrests.

Officers responding to reports of gunfire shortly after 3:30 p.m. on an avenue in the city’s St. Roch neighborhood found eight victims with gunshot wounds, according to a news release from the New Orleans Police Department. All eight were taken to hospitals in unknown condition. Police later said a ninth wounded person arrived at a hospital via a private car.

CBS New Orleans affiliate WWL-TV reports that, according to investigators, ballistics showed that two shooters were involved.

About 45 minutes later, police received another report of gunfire as revelers were crossing the Almonaster Avenue Bridge, just over half a mile (.8 km) to the north. One person died at the scene and another died at a hospital, police said. A third victim was driven to a hospital in a private vehicle and was in stable condition, police said.

No arrests were announced and no suspect information was released.

The St. Roch neighborhood is several blocks northeast of the city’s French Quarter that is popular with tourists.

The Almonaster Bridge was closed in both directions during the investigation.

Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said detectives didn’t immediately know if the incidents were related.

“They were … different kinds of approaches,” she said of the shootings, which occurred in the area where a “second line,” a celebration following a parade, was taking place.

Thousands had gathered for the annual outing of the Nine Times Social Aid & Pleasure Club in the 9th Ward, organizer Oscar Brown told NOLA.com.

“It is a wonderful event, and we want to keep it a wonderful event,” Kirkpatrick said.

It was the second major shooting in the South since gunfire marred a homecoming weekend at Tuskegee University in Alabama on Nov. 10, leaving one person dead and injuring 16 others, a dozen of them by gunfire, authorities said. 

• Shootings

President-elect Donald Trump tapped Republican Brendan Carr, an Elon Musk-backed critic of big tech, to lead the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), calling Carr a “warrior for Free Speech” in a statement on Sunday.

Carr has “fought against the regulatory Lawfare that has stifled Americans’ Freedoms” and will “end the regulatory onslaught that has been crippling America’s Job Creators and Innovators, and ensure that the FCC delivers for rural America,” Trump said in the statement.

Carr said on Musk’s social platform X that he was “humbled and honored” to take on the role of FCC chairman.

“We must dismantle the censorship cartel and restore free speech rights for everyday Americans,” he wrote in another post Sunday.

It is a phrase he has used repeatedly, posting on Friday: “Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft & others have played central roles in the censorship cartel,” adding that it “must be dismantled.”

Carr was already the senior Republican on the FCC, an independent agency that regulates licenses for television and radio, pricing of home internet, and other communications issues in the United States.

The five-person commission will have a 3-2 Democratic majority until next year, when Trump will get to appoint a new member, The Associated Press points out, adding that Carr has also been the commission’s general counsel and was confirmed unanimously by the Senate three times and nominated by both Trump and President Biden to the commission.

Long rumored as a contender for FCC chair, he has built an alliance with billionaire Musk — Trump’s wealthiest backer, whose Starlink satellite internet service could benefit from access to federal cash.

The New York Times reported that Starlink received an $885 million grant in late 2020 from the FCC — but that the Democrat-led commission later revoked it because the service couldn’t prove it would reach enough unconnected rural homes.

Carr “vociferously” opposed the decision, the newspaper reported.

“In my view, it amounted to nothing more than regulatory lawfare against one of the left’s top targets: Mr. Musk,” he wrote in a Wall Street Journal opinion article last month.

Carr has also publicly agreed with the incoming Trump administration’s promises to slash regulation and punish television networks for what they say is political bias.

Trump has repeatedly called to strip major broadcasters such as ABC, NBC and CBS of their licenses.

During the 2024 campaign, he singled out CBS, saying its license should be revoked after its flagship news program “60 Minutes” aired an interview with his Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris. Trump had declined to sit for a similar interview.

Trump sued CBS News, alleging the network’s “deceitful” editing of the 60 Minutes interview of Harris misled the public and unfairly disadvantaged him. In a statement, CBS News called the former president’s claims “completely without merit” and said the network intended to vigorously defend against the lawsuit.   

Carr also wrote a chapter on the FCC in the controversial Project 2025 document that purported to lay out a vision for a second Trump administration, in which he also called for the regulation of the largest tech companies, such as Meta, Google and Apple.

The FCC needs to bring new urgency to four main goals: reining in big tech, promoting national security, “unleashing” economic prosperity and ensuring FCC accountability, he wrote in the document by the conservative Heritage Foundation.

Carr was a strong foe of the FCC’s reinstatement in April of landmark net neutrality rules that were repealed during the first Trump administration, the Reuters news agency notes. The Biden FCC rules were in turn put on hold by a federal appeals court.

• FCC
• Donald Trump