Defense Minister: New allegations against Trump’s preferred candidate for the Pentagon

There are new allegations against Donald Trump’s controversial candidate for the head of the US Department of Defense. Pete Hegseth is said to have treated his second wife so aggressively that she even hid in the closet out of fear for her own safety. According to US media reports, Hegseth was “unpredictable and aggressive” for years, his ex-sister-in-law accused him in an affidavit to Congress. Hegseth himself describes the allegations against him as a smear campaign.

The new allegations come from Danielle Diettrich Hegseth, the ex-wife of Hegseth’s brother Nathaniel. “I believe that Hegseth has a problem with alcohol abuse and was abusive towards his ex-wife Samantha, as I understand those terms as a layman,” NBC quoted her as saying in her affidavit to senators.

She is turning to the US Congress in the hope that she can persuade enough Republicans to vote for Hegseth as defense secretary. Due to the slim majority in the Senate, even a small number of dissenters could deprive Hegseth of his position.

The allegations: A code word for emergencies and alcohol abuse

According to the former sister-in-law, Hegseth’s ex-wife agreed on a code word with her and another person – and in one case used it – to signal that she needed help because of her husband. The ex-sister-in-law admitted that she did not personally witness physical or sexual abuse by Hegseth. According to the allegations, she witnessed several incidents of alcohol abuse at Hegseth.

The allegations are similar to a series of allegations that have emerged since Trump nominated the former host of the right-wing conservative channel Fox News as defense secretary. In December, an email from Hegseth’s mother came to light in which she accused her son of treating women badly. The mother does not deny writing the email, but emphasizes that she apologized to her son for it shortly afterwards.

What does the ex-wife say herself?

According to US media, Samantha and Pete Hegseth were married from 2010 to 2018 and have three children. According to the New York Times, Samantha was interviewed by the FBI in January as part of a background check on her ex-husband. The newspaper wrote, citing an unnamed source, that she spoke of Hegseth’s ongoing alcohol abuse to this day. She rejected allegations of violence.

The former soldier Hegseth has little political experience, but is supposed to head the Pentagon, one of the most important US ministries with millions of employees and a budget of around 800 billion US dollars.