Following the recent revelation that Pete Hegseth secretly paid a financial settlement to a woman who accused him of raping her in 2017, President-elect Donald Trump stood by his choice to make Hegseth the next Secretary of Defense. Trump communications director Steven Cheung issued a statement noting that Hegseth, who has denied wrongdoing, has not been charged with a crime. “President Trump is nominating high-caliber and extremely qualified candidates for his administration,” Cheung claimed.

But Hegseth’s track record before becoming a full-time host at Fox News in 2017 raises additional questions about his suitability to lead the world’s largest and deadliest military force. A series of documents, corroborated by the accounts of former colleagues, indicate that Hegseth was forced to resign by both nonprofit advocacy groups he led – Veterans for Freedom and Concerned Veterans for America – amid serious allegations of financial mismanagement, sexual impropriety, and personal misconduct.

A previously unpublished whistleblower report about Hegseth’s tenure as president of Concerned Veterans for America from 2013 to 2016 describes how he was repeatedly drunk while in office – to the point that he had to be removed from the organization’s events. The detailed seven-page report, compiled by several former CVA employees and sent to the organization’s senior management in February 2015, said that at one point, while drunk, Hegseth had to be stopped from joining the dancers on stage at the Louisiana Strip- Club where he had taken his team. The report also said that Hegseth, who was married at the time, and other members of his management team sexually pursued the organization’s female employees, whom they divided into two groups – the “party girls” and the “non-party girls.” Additionally, the report alleges that under Hegseth’s leadership, the organization became a hostile workplace that ignored serious allegations of impropriety, including an employee’s claim that another of Hegseth’s employees attempted to sexually assault her at the strip club in Louisiana . In a separate complaint letter sent to the organization in late 2015, another former employee described that Hegseth was at a bar in the early morning hours of May 29, 2015, while on an official tour of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. drunk, he chanted: “Kill all Muslims!” Kill all Muslims!”

In response to questions from this magazine, Tim Parlatore, an attorney for Hegseth, responded with the following statement, which he said came from “an advisor” to Hegseth: “We will not comment on outlandish claims laundered through this.” The New Yorker from a petty and jealous, disgruntled former employee of Mr. Hegseth. Get in touch with us if you’re taking your first stab at real journalism.”

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat and ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, called the report on Hegseth’s drinking alarming and disqualifying. In a telephone interview, Blumenthal, who currently chairs the Senate committee that will consider Hegseth’s nomination, told me: “As much as we may be sympathetic to people with persistent alcohol problems, they should not be at the top of our national security structure.” Blumenthal continued: “It is dangerous. The Secretary of Defense is involved in all national security issues. He is involved in the use of nuclear weapons. He is the one who authorizes the sending of troops into battle. He supports drone strikes that can result in civilian casualties. It is literally in the hands of the Secretary of Defense to decide whether to live or die, and entrusting such matters to someone who may be incapacitated for any reason is a risk we cannot take.”

Blumenthal noted that a previous nominee for defense secretary, Sen. John Tower, a Republican from Texas, was voted out by his Senate colleagues in 1989 over concerns about his drinking and misogyny. It was the first time that the Cabinet selection of a newly elected president, in this case George HW Bush, was rejected by the Senate. “John Tower crashed because of the same type of problems,” Blumenthal said. “I don’t think it’s a partisan issue.”

In January 2016, Hegseth resigned under pressure from Concerned Veterans for America. An account in Military times said Hegseth had “quietly resigned,” a decision made “by mutual agreement” with the organization, amid “rumors of a rift between the former CEO and the group’s backers.” Hegseth, who had no other job at the time, gave no explanation for his departure other than to say, “Sometimes it just makes sense to make a transition.” The CVA, for its part, released a statement praising Hegseth “for his “many contributions” and wished him all the best. However, according to three knowledgeable sources, one of whom contributed to the whistleblower report, Hegseth was forced to resign from the organization in part because of concerns about his mismanagement and alcohol abuse in the workplace.

“Congratulations on the removal of Pete Hegseth,” reads the subject line of an email received by The New Yorkerwhich was sent to Hegseth’s successor as the group’s president, Jae Pak, on January 15, 2016. The email, sent by one of the whistleblowers under a pseudonym, contained a copy of the report and went on to say: “There was quite a lot of antipathy towards Pete among employees. Most veterans do not believe he represents them or their high standards of service.” The email also said Hegseth had a “history of abusing alcohol” and “treated the organization’s funds as if they were a personal expense account – for partying, drinking and using CVA events as little more than hook-up opportunities.” with women on the street.”

Pak, who served as CVA’s chief operating officer before taking office and no longer works there, declined to comment. A spokesman for Americans for Prosperity, the political umbrella group of the far-right billionaire Koch family – under whose auspices Concerned Veterans for America was founded in 2011 – confirmed that Hegseth had resigned but declined to comment further on personnel matters. Breitbart News, a publication that serves as Trump’s publicist, attempted to discredit this article before its publication by claiming that it quoted a “message” about Hegseth written by a “jealous former colleague.” was “fired”. In fact, the report published in this article is not the same document, although there is some overlap. (Nearly a dozen employees were laid off by CVA when Hegseth worked there, and the circulation of critical memos and letters to the group’s management attests to the high level of dissatisfaction within the organization.)

The whistleblower report makes extensive allegations. It details how several top executives were involved in drunken episodes, including an altercation at a casino and a hotel Christmas party where food was thrown from the balcony. Hegseth was “seen drunk at several CVA events” between 2013 and 2015, when the organization launched an ambitious nationwide effort to mobilize veterans to vote for conservative candidates and causes. The project gave Hegseth and his team the opportunity to travel far from the organization’s headquarters in northern Virginia. Hegseth and his team gave speeches, supported conservative campaigns and collected voter data that was valuable for the Kochs’ political activities. A decorated veteran who became an on-air contributor to Fox News in 2014, Hegseth was the public face of the group’s mission, leading a city-by-city tour with his team that CVA put together as the “Defend Freedom Tour.” .

I spoke at length with two people who said they were involved in the whistleblower’s report. One of them said of Hegseth: “I saw him drunk so many times. I’ve seen him get dragged away not a few times several just. Having him in the Pentagon would be scary.” According to the complaint, at one such CVA event in Virginia Beach on Memorial Day weekend in 2014, Hegseth was “completely drunk” and had to be carried to his room because “he was so drunk.” . The following month, Hegseth, who had gone with his team to a bar around the corner from their hotel, was described as “completely drunk in a public place” during an event in Cleveland. According to the report, “several high-profile individuals” who attended the organization’s event were “very disappointed by this type of public behavior,” although they are not named in the report.

In October 2014, CVA introduced a no alcohol policy at its events. According to the report, Hegseth and another manager rescinded the policy the following month while simultaneously leading a voter turnout campaign to boost Republican candidates in North Carolina. According to the report, Hegseth, who had been traveling with three young female employees, was so drunk the evening before the election that 1 Am. that an employee who had driven him to his hotel in a van full of other drunken employees asked for help getting Hegseth to his room. “Pete was completely passed out in the middle seat and slumped over a young female employee,” the report says. It took two male staff members to get Hegseth to the hotel; After a young woman vomited in some bushes, another helped him to bed. In the morning, a team member had to wake up Hegseth so that he didn’t miss his flight. “All of this happened in public,” the report said, while CVA was “embedded” in Republicans’ efforts to get in the election. It continued: “Everyone who saw this was disgusted and shocked that the team leader was so drunk.”