{"id":1050917,"date":"2025-01-21T17:55:39","date_gmt":"2025-01-21T22:55:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/?p=1050917"},"modified":"2025-01-21T17:55:40","modified_gmt":"2025-01-21T22:55:40","slug":"icymi-nyt-hegseth-ex-sister-in-law-tells-senators-he-was-abusive-to-second-wife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-nyt-hegseth-ex-sister-in-law-tells-senators-he-was-abusive-to-second-wife\/","title":{"rendered":"ICYMI: NYT: Hegseth Ex-Sister-in-Law Tells Senators He Was \u2018Abusive\u2019 to Second Wife"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"449\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Black-Logo-White-Fill-For-Email.png?w=1024\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1050776\" srcset=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Black-Logo-White-Fill-For-Email.png 1101w, https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Black-Logo-White-Fill-For-Email.png?resize=300,132 300w, https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Black-Logo-White-Fill-For-Email.png?resize=768,337 768w, https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Black-Logo-White-Fill-For-Email.png?resize=1024,449 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Key Point:<\/strong> \u201cAn ex-sister-in-law of Pete Hegseth\u2019s submitted a sworn statement to senators on Tuesday that accused Mr. Hegseth, President Trump\u2019s nominee for secretary of defense, of being so \u2018abusive\u2019 toward his second wife that she once hid in a closet from him and had a safe word to call for help if she needed to get away from him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/01\/21\/us\/politics\/hegseth-senators-affidavit.html\"><strong>New York Times<\/strong><\/a><strong>: Hegseth Ex-Sister-in-Law Tells Senators He Was \u2018Abusive\u2019 to Second Wife<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By Karoun Demirjian and Sharon LaFraniere<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>An ex-sister-in-law of Pete Hegseth\u2019s submitted a sworn statement to senators on Tuesday that accused Mr. Hegseth, President Trump\u2019s nominee for secretary of defense, of being so \u201cabusive\u201d toward his second wife that she once hid in a closet from him and had a safe word to call for help if she needed to get away from him.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>In a Capitol Hill office on Tuesday afternoon, senators were reviewing the affidavit from Danielle Diettrich Hegseth,<strong> the former wife of Mr. Hegseth\u2019s brother, which describes \u201cerratic and aggressive\u201d behavior by Pete Hegseth that caused his second wife to fear for her safety. According to a copy obtained by The Times, it also asserts that he frequently drank to excess both in public and private, including on one occasion she witnessed when he was wearing his military uniform.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>A handful of Republicans<\/strong> who have learned of the accusations in recent days <strong>have privately raised serious concerns<\/strong> about them, according to people familiar with the conversations, suggesting that the new information could potentially sap the necessary support for his approval by the Senate.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>In the affidavit, which was sent on Tuesday to the Armed Services panel, <strong>Danielle Hegseth wrote that Mr. Hegseth\u2019s second wife, Samantha Hegseth, \u201conce hid in her closet from Hegseth because she feared for her personal safety.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>She also said that <strong>Samantha Hegseth had given her a code word, shared with Danielle and one other person, that she would use if she needed help. <\/strong>According to the sworn statement, Samantha Hegseth texted Danielle Hegseth the code word once in either 2015 or 2016, and Danielle contacted the other person to put the plan into motion.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>She also recounted a number of instances in 2008 or 2009 and around 2013 in which <strong>she had witnessed Mr. Hegseth being intoxicated to the point of passing out.<\/strong><br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Many of the allegations in Danielle Hegseth\u2019s affidavit detailed episodes of Mr. Hegseth\u2019s apparent drunkenness, and in some, she said, <strong>he made racial statements <\/strong>she found offensive.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key Point: \u201cAn ex-sister-in-law of Pete Hegseth\u2019s submitted a sworn statement to senators on Tuesday that accused Mr. Hegseth, President Trump\u2019s nominee for secretary of defense, of being so \u2018abusive\u2019 toward his second wife that she once hid in a closet from him and had a safe word to call for help if she needed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":292,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1050917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>ICYMI: NYT: Hegseth Ex-Sister-in-Law Tells Senators He Was \u2018Abusive\u2019 to Second Wife - Democrats<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-nyt-hegseth-ex-sister-in-law-tells-senators-he-was-abusive-to-second-wife\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Democrats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-01-21T22:55:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-01-21T22:55:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Black-Logo-White-Fill-For-Email.png?w=1024\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Adrianna Tomasello\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Adrianna Tomasello\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-nyt-hegseth-ex-sister-in-law-tells-senators-he-was-abusive-to-second-wife\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-nyt-hegseth-ex-sister-in-law-tells-senators-he-was-abusive-to-second-wife\/\",\"name\":\"ICYMI: NYT: Hegseth Ex-Sister-in-Law Tells Senators He Was \u2018Abusive\u2019 to Second Wife - Democrats\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-nyt-hegseth-ex-sister-in-law-tells-senators-he-was-abusive-to-second-wife\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-nyt-hegseth-ex-sister-in-law-tells-senators-he-was-abusive-to-second-wife\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Black-Logo-White-Fill-For-Email.png?w=1024\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-01-21T22:55:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-01-21T22:55:40+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/#\/schema\/person\/00292e8c1694c8322513663ebb5f246f\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-nyt-hegseth-ex-sister-in-law-tells-senators-he-was-abusive-to-second-wife\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-nyt-hegseth-ex-sister-in-law-tells-senators-he-was-abusive-to-second-wife\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-nyt-hegseth-ex-sister-in-law-tells-senators-he-was-abusive-to-second-wife\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Black-Logo-White-Fill-For-Email.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Black-Logo-White-Fill-For-Email.png\",\"width\":1101,\"height\":483},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-nyt-hegseth-ex-sister-in-law-tells-senators-he-was-abusive-to-second-wife\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"ICYMI: NYT: Hegseth Ex-Sister-in-Law Tells Senators He Was \u2018Abusive\u2019 to Second Wife\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/\",\"name\":\"Democrats\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/#\/schema\/person\/00292e8c1694c8322513663ebb5f246f\",\"name\":\"Adrianna Tomasello\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f1caa4627f6a3abd6a1daf936cdbaf4406f86f7fcb6a945d915b685b27e7f9a3?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f1caa4627f6a3abd6a1daf936cdbaf4406f86f7fcb6a945d915b685b27e7f9a3?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Adrianna Tomasello\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/author\/tomaselloa\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"ICYMI: NYT: Hegseth Ex-Sister-in-Law Tells Senators He Was \u2018Abusive\u2019 to Second Wife - Democrats","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-nyt-hegseth-ex-sister-in-law-tells-senators-he-was-abusive-to-second-wife\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_site_name":"Democrats","article_published_time":"2025-01-21T22:55:39+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-01-21T22:55:40+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Black-Logo-White-Fill-For-Email.png?w=1024","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Adrianna Tomasello","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Adrianna Tomasello","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-nyt-hegseth-ex-sister-in-law-tells-senators-he-was-abusive-to-second-wife\/","url":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-nyt-hegseth-ex-sister-in-law-tells-senators-he-was-abusive-to-second-wife\/","name":"ICYMI: NYT: Hegseth Ex-Sister-in-Law Tells Senators He Was \u2018Abusive\u2019 to Second Wife - Democrats","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-nyt-hegseth-ex-sister-in-law-tells-senators-he-was-abusive-to-second-wife\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-nyt-hegseth-ex-sister-in-law-tells-senators-he-was-abusive-to-second-wife\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Black-Logo-White-Fill-For-Email.png?w=1024","datePublished":"2025-01-21T22:55:39+00:00","dateModified":"2025-01-21T22:55:40+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/#\/schema\/person\/00292e8c1694c8322513663ebb5f246f"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-nyt-hegseth-ex-sister-in-law-tells-senators-he-was-abusive-to-second-wife\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-nyt-hegseth-ex-sister-in-law-tells-senators-he-was-abusive-to-second-wife\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-nyt-hegseth-ex-sister-in-law-tells-senators-he-was-abusive-to-second-wife\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Black-Logo-White-Fill-For-Email.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Black-Logo-White-Fill-For-Email.png","width":1101,"height":483},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-nyt-hegseth-ex-sister-in-law-tells-senators-he-was-abusive-to-second-wife\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"ICYMI: NYT: Hegseth Ex-Sister-in-Law Tells Senators He Was \u2018Abusive\u2019 to Second Wife"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/","name":"Democrats","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/#\/schema\/person\/00292e8c1694c8322513663ebb5f246f","name":"Adrianna Tomasello","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f1caa4627f6a3abd6a1daf936cdbaf4406f86f7fcb6a945d915b685b27e7f9a3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f1caa4627f6a3abd6a1daf936cdbaf4406f86f7fcb6a945d915b685b27e7f9a3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Adrianna Tomasello"},"url":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/author\/tomaselloa\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1050917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/292"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1050917"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1050917\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1050918,"href":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1050917\/revisions\/1050918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1050917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1050917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1050917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}