The New Yorker's Jane Mayer discusses the intense and unethical pressure campaign to get Secretary of Defense nominee and boozing sexual harasser Pete Hegseth over the nomination goal line:
"At the Senate confirmation hearing for Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Defense, on Tuesday, the most telling feature may be the voices from whom the senators won’t hear. The Trump transition team has waged an intense, and in many ways unprecedented, behind-the-scenes campaign ahead of the hearing to intimidate and silence potential witnesses, aimed at keeping Republican senators in line and in the dark. [snip]
The Trump team’s efforts to crush dissent range from public-media campaigns targeting vulnerable senators in conservative states (and paid for by unelected billionaires) to more underhanded tactics aimed at intimidating and discrediting potentially hostile witnesses. Hegseth’s lawyer, Tim Parlatore, for instance, has threatened to sue Jane Doe, Hegseth’s anonymous rape accuser, and her lawyer for defamation if her allegations prevent him from being confirmed. So far, it appears that such tactics may be working. Several potential witnesses, including the accuser, have declined to speak out publicly and have elected not to testify at Tuesday’s hearing." (our emphasis)
Mayer notes that timid Merrick Garland's increasingly supine Justice Department / FBI didn't bother to interview key accusers of Hegseth as part of his background check:
"According to multiple well-informed sources, the Bureau failed to interview several potentially crucial witnesses, including the woman who has accused Hegseth of rape. The F.B.I. also neglected to do a full background interview with the second of Hegseth’s three wives—from whom he reportedly went through a contentious divorce—after initially struggling to get in touch with her. The Bureau failed, too, to interview former employees of Concerned Veterans for America who were critical of Hegseth when he ran the organization, between 2013 and 2016. As The New Yorker reported in December, these former employees were so shocked by his behavior that they sent a blistering internal whistle-blower report to the nonprofit’s top management—a document that was subsequently shared with the Senate Armed Services Committee." (our emphasis)
Fox Channel alumni Hegseth is yet another nominee by the Malignant Fascist who lacks character, qualifications, and faithfulness to the Constitution when it inconveniences the MF. But the tactic of stifling the inquiry into his background may backfire with Republican Senators who already have issues with Hegseth's background and qualifications, but don't hold your breath... or nose.
(photo: Hegseth sporting a Jerusalem cross tattoo, popular with Christian nationalists. Instagram)
This lame excuse for an FBI background check looks like, as much as anything, a middle finger to Senators Murkowski, Collins, and Ernst who said they need more detailed information on this lame excuse for a nominee. So, "here's your report, little ladies, now vote as your told!"
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