Senators receive a statement containing new allegations against Pete Hegseth, who denies the allegations

WASHINGTON — Senators received a statement Tuesday from the former sister-in-law of Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth, in which she says his behavior caused his second wife to fear for her safety. The receipt of the statement comes after staff members of the Senate Armed Services Committee were in contact with Hegseth’s former sister-in-law for several days.

The former sister-in-law, Danielle Hegseth, submitted the affidavit in response to a Jan. 18 letter from Sen. Jack Reed, DR.I., requesting “a statement attesting to your personal knowledge of Mr. Hegseth’s fitness to hold this important position.”

Reed, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, asked Danielle Hegseth to detail what she knew about “instances of abuse or threats of abuse committed against any other person” and “abuse by a spouse, ex-spouse or other members of his family,” among other requests.

Reed said in a statement Tuesday, “As I have said for months, the reports of Mr. Hegseth’s history of alleged sexual assault, alcohol abuse and public misconduct require a thorough background investigation. I have been concerned that the background check process has been inadequate and this sworn statement confirms this fact.”

He added that “the alleged pattern of abuse and misconduct by Mr. Hegseth is disturbing. This behavior would disqualify any service member from holding a leadership position in the military, much less being confirmed as Secretary of Defense.”

Danielle describes in the affidavit allegations of volatile and threatening behavior by Hegseth that caused his second wife, Samantha Hegseth, to fear for her safety. Among the allegations are that Samantha once hid in a closet from Hegseth, that she developed escape plans to use “if she felt like she needed to get away from Hegseth”, which would be activated with a code word, and that she once made the escape plans. in action.

At least 15 senators — including several Republicans — had reviewed the statement as of 5 p.m. 2:30 p.m. ET, according to a Senate staffer.

Two days before Congress received the affidavit, NBC News asked Hegseth’s second wife, Samantha Hegseth, to comment on the details of some of the allegations in the affidavit.

In an email response Monday, Samantha Hegseth said, “First of all, I have not and will not comment on my marriage to Pete Hegseth. I do not have representatives speaking on my behalf, nor have I ever asked anyone to share or talk about the details of my marriage on my behalf, whether it’s a reporter, a committee member, a transition team member, etc.

She added: “I don’t think your information is accurate and I’ve sent my lawyer.”

Asked what information was inaccurate and for comment on the statement, she replied Tuesday: “There was no physical abuse in my marriage. This is the only further statement I will give you, I have let you know that I did not talking and not wanting to talk about my marriage to Pete. Please respect that decision.”

An attorney for Pete Hegseth, Tim Parlatore, denied the allegations.

“Sam has never alleged any abuse, she signed court documents admitting there was no abuse and recently confirmed as much during her FBI interview. Delayed claims by Danielle Dietrich, an anti-Trump Democrat from the left, who is divorced from Mr. Hegseth’s brother and never got along with the Hegseth family, is doing nothing to change that,” he said in a statement.

“After an acrimonious divorce, Mrs. Dietrich has had an ax to grind against the entire Hegseth family,” he added. “Ms. Dietrich admits she saw nothing, but now she is falsely accused of lying to both the court and the FBI because of private, unsubstantiated statements she allegedly made 10 years ago.”

Both Pete Hegseth and Samantha Hegseth signed a 2021 court document stating that neither parent claimed to be the victim of domestic abuse.

Allegations in declaration

Danielle Hegseth says in the statement, a redacted copy of which has been reviewed by NBC News, “I have chosen to come forward publicly, at significant personal sacrifice, because I am deeply concerned about what Hegseth’s confirmation would mean for our military and our country. ”

She adds that part of her reasoning for coming forward is “because I have been assured that this public statement will ensure that certain senators who are still on the fence will vote against Hegseth’s confirmation. But for that assurance, I do not expose myself or others named in this statement to public scrutiny which this statement is likely to cause.”

The allegations in the statement paint a picture of Hegseth’s strained relationship with Samantha Hegseth. The two married in 2010 and divorced in 2018. They have three children.

Danielle decided to speak with committee staff after deliberation, sources said, but she notes in the affidavit that she had described the allegations in it to an FBI agent in a Dec. 30, 2024, interview conducted as part of its background investigation of Pete Hegseth.

The committee’s Republican chairman and Democratic ranking member were not told about the information Danielle gave to the FBI when the Trump transition team briefed them on the results of Pete Hegseth’s pre-hearing background check, according to two sources familiar with the hearing’s content. briefing.

According to the affidavit, Danielle Hegseth says she forwarded additional information about Pete Hegseth to the FBI on Saturday, four days after Hegseth testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee as part of his confirmation process. The FBI declined to comment.

Separately, Arthur Schwartz, an adviser to Hegseth and paid consultant to the Trump transition, said in an email Monday: “Even SASC Democrats found these allegations too flimsy to raise with Mr. Hegseth or their Republican colleagues on the committee, who say much about both the allegations and NBC’s standards of disclosure.” Schwartz did not respond to an email Tuesday seeking comment on the existence of the statement.

In the affidavit, Danielle Hegseth notes that “much” of what she knows about Samantha’s situation, she “learned from her around the time of the events in question.”

“However, I trust what Samantha told me for the above reasons, most critically because it was consistent with what I personally observed of Hegseth’s erratic and aggressive behavior over many years,” Danielle Hegseth said in the statement.

She also says, “I think Hegseth has an alcohol abuse problem and abused his ex-wife Samantha, as I understand those terms as a layman.”

According to the affidavit, during the marriage, Samantha Hegseth developed and carried out plans with members of Hegseth’s family and mutual friends to help her escape “if she felt she needed to get away from Hegseth.”

A person with indirect knowledge of Samantha Hegseth’s alleged escape plans had told committee staffers about them, according to three sources familiar with the conversations. NBC News also spoke to two other sources who had been familiar with the plans before committee staff heard about them.

The plans included what Danielle Hegseth refers to in the affidavit as a “safe word/password” that Samantha could text her to tell friends and family that Pete Hegseth was in a potentially dangerous and volatile state at home and that she had need help.

In the affidavit, Danielle Hegseth also says that once, “sometime in 2015-2016,” Samantha texted her one of the words and activated the escape plan.

Danielle Hegseth also claims in the affidavit that Samantha told her that on one occasion, Samantha “hid in her closet from Hegseth because she feared for her personal safety.”

In the affidavit, Danielle Hegseth also details instances where she says she was “a witness to and even a victim of emotional abuse by Hegseth” and says she “personally witnessed Hegseth abuse alcohol numerous times.”

In 2009, Danielle says, “Hegseth drunkenly yelled in my face.” In his account: “Hegseth was angry that I left the room while he was telling a story. I don’t remember the details of the story, but I do remember that it had a racial bent that bothered me. He followed me out of the room and yelled at me that I was disrespecting him by walking away.” Danielle says “it was very scary” and that it “lasted long enough” that he had to be pulled away from her by another person.

Danielle also claims she personally heard him make several misogynistic comments.

According to the affidavit, she heard Hegseth “say that women should not have the right to vote and that they should not work.”

She also tells of a night in 2013 when Hegseth “got very drunk” at a bar, “dancing with gin and tonics in each hand and dropped several glasses on the dance floor and made a mess.” When she left the bar with Hegseth, she says, “he repeatedly shouted ‘No means yes!'”

She also recounts an incident she did not witness but says she was told about. In 2009, she says, Hegseth was found at a strip club “drunk, in his military uniform, lap dancing.”

Asked for comment on those claims specifically, Parlatore said, “These claims are clearly and patently false to any objective observer.”

Three days after Hegseth’s confirmation hearing before the Armed Services Committee, some Democratic staffers heard information now contained in the affidavit directly from Danielle for the first time, according to three sources.

NBC News and other media organizations have reported concerns about Hegseth’s drinking. If confirmed, Hegseth will occupy a major position in President Donald Trump’s cabinet, overseeing the Defense Department and its millions of employees spread across the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and beyond.

The allegations also raise new questions about the scope and thoroughness of the FBI’s background check of Hegseth, what Defense Committee members and staff knew and when, and what the Trump transition communicated to the committee before last week’s confirmation hearing.

A source familiar with the FBI’s background check process told NBC News “our hands are tied” and expressed general frustration with the process. “We are a service provider,” the source said, adding that the parameters of what the FBI can and should investigate and the time given to complete its work are determined by the organization requesting it — in this case Trump— the transition team.

“The point of a thorough FBI background check is to confirm that there is no derogatory information that would compromise a candidate’s ability to do their job. The FBI process designed by the Trump Transition Team for Mr. Hegseth has been deeply inadequate,” Reed said in a statement after the briefing, several days before Hegseth’s confirmation hearing, that “investigators neglected to contact critical witnesses and whistleblowers.”

The FBI declined to comment on detailed questions from NBC News about Hegseth’s background investigation.

After his committee voted along party lines Monday to move Hegseth’s nomination to the full Senate, Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., was asked if he’s concerned about more allegations against Hegseth coming to light.

“I think you all probably heard a whisper of a rumor earlier today that was anonymous, unsubstantiated and contradicted some court documents that had been introduced into the case during the hearing,” Wicker said.

Late. Rep. Tim Kaine, D-Va., who is aggressively questioning Hegseth at the hearing, said Danielle Hegseth’s affidavit refuted that argument.

“So the claim that everything alleged to be an anonymous smear was false when it was made last week, and it’s even more false today,” Kaine said. “I think the issues that are being raised are A, conduct, B, honesty with the committee in both his oral testimony and in his responses to QFRs and C, honesty with the Trump transition team that investigated him to be Minister of Defence.”

A vote in the Senate on Hegseth’s nomination is expected as early as Thursday. To be confirmed, Hegseth needed only a simple majority, or 51 of the Senate’s 53 Republicans.