Lawyer for Trump’s Pentagon pick Hegseth says he paid accuser but denies sexual assault

US President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary paid a woman who accused him of sexual assault, but says that the relations were consensual, The Washington Post reports.

Pete Hegseth was accused of sexual assault in 2017, according to police. No charges were filed in the case, but shocked Trump transition team officials are nonetheless reportedly weighing next steps for the Fox News host, whose nomination took many in Washington by surprise.

Hegseth’s attorney, Timothy Parlatore, tells the Post that his client was “visibly intoxicated” at the time of the incident, and he paid the woman due to concerns that if the story became known, it “would result in his immediate termination from Fox.”

The newspaper says a “detailed memo” was sent to Trump’s team by a woman who said she was a friend of the accuser.

The newspaper says it has seen a copy of the memo, which alleges Hegseth raped the then-30-year-old conservative group staffer in his California hotel room. Hegseth was in Monterey to speak at a California Federation of Republican Women conference.

The newspaper says that the day after the alleged sexual assault, the woman went to the emergency room for a rape-kit examination that “was positive for semen” and she gave a statement to authorities.

AFP contributed to this report.