Police have released a detailed investigative report into Pete Hegseth, the Fox News personality and military veteran Donald Trump has nominated to be America’s next defense secretary, after he was accused of sexual assault by a woman he met at a conservative conference in Monterey, California, in 2017, the latest resurfaced scandal to dog the incoming administration.
Hegseth told officers at the time that the encounter in question had been consensual and denied any wrongdoing.
On Wednesday, the House Ethics Committee met to discuss whether to publish its own report into another controversial Trump pick, Matt Gaetz, whom it investigated in 2021 and 2022 over allegations that he paid for sex with a minor in 2017.
Gaetz has likewise denied the accusations against him.
After meeting for two hours, the panel’s chairman Michael Guest drew a backlash after revealing: “There was no agreement by the committee to release the report.”
The president-elect has meanwhile unveiled a new range of branded guitars and made further additions to his proposed cabinet, naming Matthew Whitaker and Peter Hoekstra his ambassadors to Nato and Canada, following the nominations of Linda McMahon, Dr Mehmet Oz and Howard Lutnick earlier this week.
Analysis: Why the Gaetz report blew up the Ethics Committee
Republicans have found themselves stuck pretty badly between a rock and a hard place, reports Eric Garcia from Congress.
Trump unveils latest merchandise grift: $10,500 signed American Eagle guitars in time for Christmas
Here’s more on the president-elect finding time to sell luxury items during a cost of living crisis rather than picking a treasury secretary, his latest venture following hot on the heels of the gold high-top sneakers, NFTs, “MAGADonald’s” T-shirts and Bibles he hawked to his acolytes on the campaign trail.
Nancy Mace’s accused of hypocrisy over pivot to transphobia
The South Carolina Republican appeared on Newsmax yesterday to promote her Capitol Hill bathrooms bill and declared: “It is offensive that a man in a skirt thinks that he’s my equal.
“He’s forcing his genitals into women’s restrooms.”
Which is interesting, as her views on the issue were not always quite so abhorrent:
Bitcoin inches close to record $100,000 propped up by Trump’s pro-crypto stance
The world’s leading cryptocurrency has topped $96,000 for the first time, reaching a record-high value of just over $97,522.
Several digital coins, including bitcoin, have been on a record-breaking price rally of late amid what’s being called a “Trump bump” of crypto frenzy.
Vishwam Sankaran reports.
Fox News host Jesse Watters claims men shouldn’t wish other men ‘happy birthday’
Here’s James Liddell on the Fox presenter snearing about Joe Biden’s birthday yesterday, with Watters once more inadvertently revealing in the process that he is a man in desperate need of a hug.
Gaetz claims he had a ‘great day’ on Capitol Hill and is looking forward to confirmation hearings
The would-be attorney general joined Vice President-Elect JD Vance in DC yesterday to make his case for the job to Republican senators in person, afterwards assuring the press he had a wonderful time and could not wait to have his personal life poured over in the upper chamber of Congress.
Nikki Haley issues scathing takedown of ‘Russian sympathizer’ Tulsi Gabbard and ‘liberal’ RFK Jr
The former United Nations ambassador in Trump’s first administration raised major concerns about Gabbard, who was picked as director of national security, and RFK Jr, who has been nominated Health and Human Services secretary, during her SiriusXM show Nikki Haley Live on Wednesday.
Here’s James Liddell on what she had to say.
Watch: Trump’s border czar pick Tom Homan tears up discussing Laken Riley murder during live TV interview
Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan tears up discussing Laken Riley murder
Donald Trump’s border czar pick Tom Homan teared up discussing the murder of Laken Riley during a live TV interview. Ms Riley, 22, never returned home from going for a run on the University of Georgia campus in February. The nursing student’s slain body was found later that day in a wooded area behind Lake Herrick, near UGA’s intramural fields on campus. Jose Ibarra, 26, who is not a US citizen, was arrested and charged with murder in Riley’s death, a case that quickly became a flashpoint in the national immigration debate. Ibarra was found guilty of Ms Riley’s murder yesterday (20 November) and sentenced to life in prison. Appearing on Fox News after the verdict, Homan explained why he gets so emotional explaining the danger of illegal migrant criminals to government officials.
Musk and Ramaswamy reveal plans to weaponize Supreme Court to push through mass firings and drastic cuts
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will be looking to the Supreme Court to unilaterally gut federal agencies and cut funding.
The two men – the world’s richest person and a wealthy biotech entrepreneur who briefly ran for president – have been tapped to lead a panel of outside advisers to make those recommendations.
Their newly created “Department of Government Efficiency” (or DOGE) will be guided by a pair of Supreme Court rulings that legal scholars have warned will turn the courts into weapons against federal regulations that right-wing groups have spent years trying to undermine.
Here’s more from Alex Woodward.
Trump allies rubbish allegations against nominees
Florida Representative Byron Donalds and attorney Alina Habba, two regular cable news spokespeople for the campaign that have conspicuously not been nominated to roles yet, were out on TV last night parroting the party line on Hegseth and Gaetz – and perhaps making a case for themselves with Trump in the process.
Much less helpful regarding Gaetz were Lindsey Graham and Carlos Gimenez, who were not exactly offering ringing endorsements of his candidacy.
Source: independent.co.uk