Following President-elect Donald Trump’s decisive victory, the mainstream media have shifted their focus to scrutinizing his cabinet nominees, with recent attention directed at Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth with another allegation that has come out of nowhere. Breitbart News has learned that The New Yorker is planning to release a major exposé on Hegseth, resurrecting decade-old allegations from a disgruntled former coworker. These claims, which are being recirculated to the media, emerge as Hegseth prepares for his Senate confirmation hearings.
The allegations date back to 2014 and were made by a former female associate who was dismissed from Concerned Veterans for America (CVA), a conservative veterans-advocacy group where she worked alongside Pete Hegseth. Sources have described the accuser as someone on the “periphery of Trump world” over the past decade, harboring aspirations of becoming a Fox News host. Reportedly, her jealousy toward Hegseth intensified, particularly after he was considered for the role of Secretary of Veterans Affairs during Trump’s first administration, Breitbart News reported.
During that period, she wrote and circulated a lengthy complaint accusing Concerned Veterans for America (CVA) of age discrimination and alleging alcohol consumption by several of its leaders, including Pete Hegseth, at staff gatherings and after-work events in 2014. She also claimed that the former Fox News host was “noticeably intoxicated” at a staff Christmas party and alleged that during a Get Out the Vote trip in North Carolina, volunteers gathered in their hotel war room for beers after door-knocking ended at 6 p.m. She further stated that some CVA staff, including Hegseth, went out for drinks afterward, returning around 1 a.m.
She also alleged that in June 2014, following a Defend Freedom Tour event, Pete Hegseth became “completely drunk” with a CVA adviser and Medal of Honor recipient Marine Dakota Meyer. Additionally, she claimed that during another tour, Hegseth and the adviser were seen flirting with a singer on the tour and “behaving like fraternity members.”
At the time, Hegseth was a 34-year-old captain in the Minnesota Army National Guard who had recently returned from his second deployment, serving in Afghanistan during the surge. The former female coworker attacked Hegseth as a “part-timer” “parading around as a combat veteran,” claiming he “served behind the wire and never performed combat operations.” But the allegations are entirely false. Hegseth served in combat in Iraq in 2005, leading a platoon of approximately 40 soldiers into Baghdad and Samarra.
Retired Army Sgt. Maj. Eric Geressy, who served alongside Hegseth, described the combat to The Washington Post as “especially intense.” He told the Post: “The enemy really threw everything at us there. Suicide bombers, mortars, rockets — anything and everything.” Hegseth has received military awards that include the Combat Infantryman Badge, which is only awarded to soldiers who have participated in combat.
Toward the end of her statement, the former coworker accused CVA of age discrimination and of reducing experienced veteran staff, including herself:
Just about all of the staff/advisers/contractors who created the organization and built it have been cut. All of the original people were brought on by Joe Gecan. Almost all are over 45+ years old and veterans. It seems obvious the young CEO, Pete Hegseth, and his team have no appreciation for anyone having more experience than them and, therefore, to keep in CVA. This can be perceived as age and veteran discrimination. Look at all of the staff and advisers cut and you will see a definite trend.
Army veteran Sam Rogers, a former CVA volunteer and employee, defended Hegseth in a statement obtained by Breitbart: ”
When you do grassroots advocacy work you meet people where they are, sometimes it’s a church, sometimes it’s a bar, sometimes it’s a hospital. When I reached out to my VA hospital from my third Afghanistan tour and asked for a counseling appointment over mid-tour leave, I was told they were scheduling 6-9 months out and that I should call back after my deployment.
“Pete Hegseth led the organization that ultimately secured the most significant veteran healthcare reforms in my lifetime that kept many veterans from suffering similar — though Joe Biden has aggressively undone some of that work on behalf of the VA’s labor union,” he added. “Pete’s work got me into public policy advocacy work and showed a real third way for veterans who wanted to see change in politics. He has far more in common with the shared experiences of regular troops than the retired generals sitting on defense boards making money off of the broken systems they perpetuated.”
Disclaimer: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.