Pete Hegseth says he was blackmailed into paying off rape accuser during #MeToo movement: lawyer

President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth says he was blackmailed during the #MeToo movement, and paid off an accuser to keep her silent, his attorney Timothy Parlatore tells The Post.Hegseth, who worked as Fox News host until Trump picked him for his Cabinet, paid an undisclosed amount to a woman who accused him of sexual assault, which he maintains was consensual, his lawyer confirmed.

“Basically, he was totally innocent.He did nothing wrong here,” Parlatore said.

“We went through a mediation and ultimately settled for far less than what she wanted.And that should have completely buried it.”Last week, the Trump transition team received a memo from a friend of the accuser who detailed the accusations against Trump’s surprise pick to lead the Department of Defense, the Washington Post reported.

The alleged incident took place on Oct.7, 2017, in Monterey, California, and involved an unidentified staffer at a conservative group who accused Hegseth, now 44, of raping her in his hotel room after a boozy night at the bar.

She was in her 30s at the time.Hegseth had been staying at the Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel and Spa at the time after delivering an address at the California Federation of Republican Women conference.Parlatore, who declined to divulge the amount paid or the identity of the woman, claimed that she was sober and pursued Hegseth.“He had way too many drinks, and according to video surveillance and eyewitness testimony, this woman who was sober, took advantage of him, and she was the aggressor,” he said.

“She took him by the arm and she led him up to his room.”But the memo of the incident sent to the transition team, which The Post has not independently obtained, alleged that she was responsible for ensuring that Hegseth made it back to his room and to the airport the next day, according to the Washington Post.She was staying in the hotel with her children and husband at the time.

After receiving text...