BREAKING: Like Trump, Chief Cabinet Secretary and Fox News host Pete Hegseth paid hush money to prosecutor

His potential boss-to-be Donald Trump denied anything happened, but still wrote checks to a former porn star who said they had a sexual encounter.

And now Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Defense, insists that if there was a sexual encounter it was consensual — but he nevertheless paid off a woman who accused him of sexual assault.

The payment was part of a confidentiality agreement, according to A statement Saturday from Hegseth’s and other documents obtained by The Washington Post.

Trump, of course, was convicted of 34 crimes in an election interference and hush-money trial that included testimony that he secretly — and illegally — paid Stormy Daniels in 2016 to keep their alleged affair hidden from voters.

According to the Washington Post:

Hegseth’s lawyer, Timothy Parlatore, said (in a statement) that Hegseth was “visibly intoxicated” at the time of the incident, and claimed that police contacted a few days after the encounter with the woman concluded that “the complainant had been the aggressor. in the meeting.” Police have not confirmed that claim.

Hegseth agreed to pay an undisclosed amount to the woman because he feared that disclosure of the matter “would result in his immediate dismissal from Fox,” where he works as a host, the statement said.

A detailed memo of the incident was sent to the Trump transition team this week by a woman who said she was a friend of the accuser. The Post has obtained a copy of the memo, which alleges that Hegseth raped the woman — then a 30-year-old associate of the conservative group — in his room after drinking at a hotel bar.

The Post reported that it was unable to speak to the accuser.

The accuser, whose identity has not been made public, filed a complaint with police alleging that she was sexually assaulted several days after the encounter on October 7, 2017 in Monterey, California, but the local district attorney did not file charges. although police have confirmed this. that they investigated the incident.

When she threatened a lawsuit in 2020, Hegseth made the payment and signed the non-disclosure agreement, his attorney said.

After drinking at the bar, the woman said she didn’t remember anything until she was in Hegseth’s room and then stumbled to find her own room. The next day she has a vague memory of the rape and was examined at a hospital, where a rape kit tested positive for semen.

Meanwhile, former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, Trump’s pick for attorney general, was under investigation for allegedly having sex with an underage woman, which ended without charges being filed.

The woman at the center of a yearslong Justice Department investigation into sex trafficking allegations testified to the House Ethics Committee that Gaetz had sex with her when she was 17 years old, sources familiar with the investigation told ABC News.

Trump insists he will not withdraw Gaetz’s name despite warnings from lawmakers from both parties, who warn Gaetz faces an uphill climb to secure the 51 votes needed for Senate confirmation.