Attorneys for defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth denied recent allegations against President Trump's pick for the top Pentagon post in a letter to the Senate Armed Services Committee chairman.
In a letter obtained by NewsNation, attorney Timothy Parlatore tells Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi) that the person who came forward with the latest allegations against Hegseth, Danielle Dietrich, the ex-wife of Hegseth's brother, said she was He was a “lifelong Democrat” and had problems with “credibility and bias.”
Parlatore quoted Dietrich as saying, “I am confident that by making this public statement, some senators who are still on the fence will be able to vote against Mr. Hegseth's confirmation.''
Parlatore added: “She has openly acknowledged that her purpose is to sink the nomination, and she has been promised by the Democratic Party that such statements will have that effect.”
Parlatore also noted that Dietrich works for a law firm with “prominent ties to the Democratic Party” and that the firm's billings are typically “far beyond Dietrich's means.” “It is clear that partisans are funding Mr. Dietrich,” he wrote. Mr. Dietrich sought to undermine Mr. Hegseth's approval. ”
Mr. Parlatore also pointed out that Mr. Dietrich, whose affidavit accused Mr. Hegseth of abusing his second wife, contradicted some of his second wife's sworn statements in the divorce case. Dietrich himself claimed to have admitted that he did not witness most of her claims.
“There is no basis for trusting this deeply flawed and dubious affidavit, filed at the eleventh hour in a clearly partisan attempt to block Mr. Hegseth's confirmation,” Parlatore wrote. “I humbly request that you rely on the Minnesota court record and the FBI's findings to dismiss this perjury affidavit and move forward with confirming Mr. Hegseth as Secretary of Defense.”
The letter comes after Dietrich's affidavit surfaced on Tuesday, a day after the Senate Armed Services Committee advanced Hegseth's nomination on a party-line vote, and after Senate Democrats sounded the alarm over the eleventh-hour nature of the allegations. It was done.
Dietrich detailed the allegations in a six-page statement, saying Samantha Hegseth, the defense secretary candidate's second wife, once had to hide in a closet in fear, forcing her to flee. He said he has made plans to deploy it if the situation arises.
He also cited multiple instances of alcohol abuse over the years.
“I believe Hegseth is an unstable and unstable person with an alcohol abuse problem,” she wrote, according to an edited version seen by The Hill. “I don't think he can be trusted and I don't think he's a good character. In my opinion, he's not the right person to be secretary of defense.”
Samantha Hegseth denied the allegations.Email NBC NewsParlatore included this in his letter to Wicker.
“First and foremost, I have not and do not plan to comment on my marriage to Pete Hegseth. I do not have any representatives speaking on my behalf, including reporters, committee members, transition team members, etc. , I have never asked anyone to share or discuss the details of my marriage on my behalf,” she wrote. .
She added, “I can't trust your information to be accurate. I've CC'd your attorney.”
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