On the afternoon of Oct. 12, 2017, a nurse at Kaiser Permanente called the Monterey Police Department to report that a patient had come in for a sexual assault exam.

The woman, the nurse told police, said she had been sexually assaulted four days earlier while at a Republican women’s conference at the Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel & Spa in the coastal California resort town.

The alleged assailant — though his name wouldn’t be revealed immediately — was a popular Fox News Channel host and the keynote speaker at the conference.

The woman, identified only as Jane Doe in police reports, told the nurse she wasn’t sure she wanted to involve authorities and didn’t want to disclose the person’s name at that point. She had been suffering from nightmares and bouts of sobbing after returning home from the conference, but had little memory of the sexual encounter. She feared she had been drugged. The woman, who has not been identified publicly, could not be reached for comment by The Times.

The nurse referred the woman to an emergency room for a sexual assault forensic exam. But the nurse’s call — made as a mandated reporter — triggered a law enforcement investigation that included interviews with hotel staff, a review of surveillance video, discussions with several of the woman’s associates and a conversation with the alleged perpetrator, Pete Hegseth, who assured police the encounter had been consensual.

No charges were ever filed. Monterey County Dist. Atty. Jeannine M. Pacioni said no charges were supported by proof beyond a reasonable doubt. The two parties eventually reached a private settlement, after which Doe signed a nondisclosure agreement.

The story seemed to end there — until Donald Trump nominated Hegseth to be Defense secretary. Now that night in Monterey has become the centerpiece in what could be one of the most contentious Senate confirmation fights in years.

In recent days, a police report on the incident and other details have offered a clearer picture about the allegations. But much remains unknown, including why local prosecutors decided not to file charges against Hegseth.

Shortly after the president-elect’s announcement of Hegseth’s nomination, a friend of the woman wrote a memo to Trump’s transition team saying that Hegseth had raped the then-30-year-old conservative group staffer in his hotel room in the early morning hours after a banquet dinner at the California Federation of Republican Women conference.

In response, Hegseth confirmed the financial settlement, saying through his lawyer that he had agreed to pay the woman to protect his job at Fox. But he vehemently denied committing assault. The woman, Hegseth’s lawyer said in a statement, “was the aggressor in initiating sexual activity.” Hegseth had been “visibly intoxicated” at the after-party in the hotel bar, the lawyer said, and the woman had “led him by the arm to his hotel room.”

“The matter was fully investigated, and I was completely cleared, and that’s where I’m gonna leave it,” Hegseth told reporters at the Capitol on Thursday.

Revelations of the incident have set off a firestorm, both in Washington and among members of the California Federation of Republican Women.

The federation is a nonprofit advocacy group composed mostly of retirees. Its members gather for luncheons, conferences and fundraisers to hear Republican politicians speak about conservative issues.

Many in the group were horrified that a favored conservative Republican Cabinet pick could be hurt by allegations.

“This thing is so f— bogus,” one of the organization’s officers yelled before hanging up on a Times reporter who called for comment.

This week, the Monterey Police Department released a redacted 22-page report detailing its investigation, including accounts of the recollections of Doe and Hegseth, along with several other attendees. Though police reports are typically not public in California, the document had been released because Hegseth had previously asked for a copy.

The police report offers the most complete picture yet of what occurred at the Monterey hotel on Oct. 7-8, 2017.

On the second day of the three-day gathering, Doe took a break in her hotel room where she was staying with her husband and at least one of her small children before the banquet dinner and keynote speech — the last major scheduled event of the conference — began at 6 p.m., according to text messages and sources with knowledge of the event.

Forty-five minutes later she texted with her husband from the banquet. The conversation turned to Hegseth.

“Our ladies are freaking drooling over him,” she wrote. She sent a photo of Hegseth standing at a podium holding a microphone and gesturing with his hand as he spoke.

“He doesn’t look even remotely familiar,” she said. “But apparently all the women know who he is.”

She continued: “He wears a ring on his pointer finger. It creeps me out.” She lamented that the event was taking so long.

After the banquet, the woman went to an after-party in another federation member’s hotel suite, where she had a glass of champagne. Hegseth was there too. A federation member who was there told police later that the woman “did not seem intoxicated, but had a buzz” at the event.

Around midnight, Doe, Hegseth and a second woman walked toward Knuckles, the sports bar in the hotel. Inside the bar, which has since closed, televisions and football helmets lined the walls. She texted her husband an update, saying that she was headed to the bar with a group of ladies. “Omg I have so much to tell you. This Pete dude is a … toooool,” she wrote.

While they were drinking at the bar, Hegseth allegedly put his hand on another woman’s knee. She told police that she made it clear it was “not acceptable,” but he still invited her to his room. She declined, according to the report.

Monterey’s Cannery Row

(Zen Rial/Getty Images)

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The same woman tried to get Doe’s attention so she could act as a “crotch blocker” to deter Hegseth’s sexual advances, according to the report.

Doe told police that her memory started to get “fuzzy” while she was at the bar.

Around 1:30 a.m., Doe argued with Hegseth near the hotel pool about his behavior with women at the conference. He responded that he was a “nice guy,” according to the report. She later told investigators that Hegseth would rub women on their legs and she thought his actions were inappropriate.

A hotel employee who had been working that night told an investigator that guests had called the front desk to complain about two people causing a disturbance by the swimming pool about 1:30 a.m. The employee said that when he approached Hegseth and Doe, Hegseth cursed at him and said that he “had freedom of speech,” the report states. The woman intervened and said that “they were Republicans and apologized for Hegseth’s actions,” it said.

The staffer said the woman was “standing on her own and very coherent,” while Hegseth was “very intoxicated,” according to the report.

Doe placed her hand and arm on Hegseth’s back and escorted him toward the building where his room was, the employee told police. Hegseth later told an investigator he didn’t remember being chastised by the pool.

In the early morning hours, Doe’s husband sent her a text message: “Holy smokes lady…I don’t remember the last time you were socializing at nearly 2:00 a.m.” She responded, “Hahaha I know. I gotta make sure that to” — ending midsentence — and then stopped texting.

Her husband wrote back: “Doing ok? My love? Worried about you.”

Around 2 a.m. her husband went looking for Doe at Knuckles, but no one was there, he told investigators.

Doe next recalled being in a hotel room alone with Hegseth. She had her phone in her hand and Hegseth asked her who she was texting before taking her phone, she told police. She tried to leave the room, according to the report, but Hegseth blocked the door. She remembered saying “no” a lot, she told police.

Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of Defense, speaks with reporters in Washington on Thursday.

(Rod Lamkey/Associated Press)

Her next memory, she told police, was lying on a bed or couch with Hegseth’s dog tags hovering over her face. She said he ejaculated on her stomach, threw a towel at her and said to “clean it up” before asking her whether she was OK, according to the report.

Hegseth recalled the situation differently in an interview with authorities.

He told police that Doe led him to his hotel room, where things progressed between the two of them, according to the report. There was “always” conversation and “always” consensual contact between himself and Doe, he told police.

Hegseth recalled Doe displaying “early signs of regret” after the incident and said she would tell her husband she fell asleep on a couch in someone else’s room, according to the report.

Around 4 a.m., Doe returned to her hotel room and explained to her husband that she “must have fallen asleep.” She told police she didn’t start remembering what happened between her and Hegseth until she returned home the next day.

Richard “Ric” Grenell, the former acting director of National Intelligence in President-elect Trump’s first administration, is reportedly under consideration to be special envoy for the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Currently, there is no special envoy responsible for bringing an end to the war in Eastern Europe. Trump is strongly considering whether to create the role, Reuters reported, citing four sources familiar with the president’s deliberations.

If he does create the new position, Grenell is said to be a leading candidate, though Trump may select someone else, the sources told Reuters. There is also no guarantee that Grenell would accept the position if it were offered to him, the sources reportedly said. 

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Fox News Digital was previously told Grenell was under consideration to be U.S. Secretary of State. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio was instead named to lead the State Department.

Neither Grenell nor the Trump transition team responded to requests for comment. 

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Former Acting Director of National Intelligence of the U.S. Richard Grenell, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), U.S. Republican presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump and conservative radio host Glenn Beck participate in a private roundtable discussion during a campaign rally at Findlay Toyota Center on October 13, 2024, in Prescott Valley, Arizona. (Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)

Trump repeatedly made campaign promises to quickly resolve the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, if elected, although he has never laid out a specific plan to end the war.

Grenell, an outspoken Trump loyalist, has made statements in the past that may be of concern to Ukrainian leadership.

‘NEW’ RUSSIAN MISSILE USED AGAINST UKRAINE NOT HYPERSONIC, DEFENSE OFFICIALS SAY

Former Acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell speaks on stage on the third day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum on July 17, 2024, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

During a Bloomberg round table in July, he advocated for the creation of “autonomous zones” as a means of settling the conflict, which began after Russia invaded Ukrainian sovereign territory. He also suggested he would not be in favor of Ukraine joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in the immediate future, a position he shares with many Trump allies.

Grenell’s supporters note he has had a long diplomatic career and has a deep knowledge of European affairs. In addition to serving as ambassador to Germany, Grenell was also a special presidential envoy for Serbia and Kosovo peace negotiations.

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Prior to working for the first Trump administration, Grenell was a U.S. State Department spokesman to the United Nations under President George W. Bush. He has advised various Republican candidates and was a foreign policy spokesman for Mitt Romney during the 2012 presidential campaign.

Grenell was previously a Fox News contributor. 

Reuters contributed to this report.

Donald Trump said violent crime was exploding across the U.S.

It wasn’t.

He said Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were “eating the dogs. They’re eating the cats.”

They weren’t.

He said the Federal Emergency Management Agency diverted disaster relief money to fund benefits for people in the country illegally.

It hadn’t.

Trump lied incessantly and extravagantly in his bumptious bid for president, after racking up more than 30,500 false or misleading statements during four years in the White House, according to fact-checkers at the Washington Post.

Trump won anyway. Some voters might even have backed him because of his relentless falsehoods.

Which raises several questions.

Is honesty, as in telling the truth, no longer a requirement for seeking and holding public office? Has veracity become one of those quaint relics of a bygone era, like straw boaters and torchlight parades? Should candidates of any and every persuasion feel free to emulate Trump and lie their heads off?

Maybe.

Not necessarily.

First, before we go on, an obligatory nod to the what-about chorus. Yes, politicians of all stripes have been known to lie, fib or shade the truth. It’s been ever thus. But no one in modern memory has done so with the velocity, shamelessness and torrential outpouring of Trump.

Indeed, there may be some hope and comfort in the notion the 45th and soon-to-be 47th president of these United States is sui generis, a one-off, a fabulist political unicorn.

As Kevin Madden, a veteran Republican communications strategist noted, Trump “was a celebrity first and a politician second” after marinating for decades in New York’s saucy tabloid culture, then residing in America’s living rooms as a make-believe boardroom baron in “The Apprentice.”

Simply put, Trump has never been viewed the same way other office seekers are, which is arguably his greatest strength. Even after nearly a decade in which he’s utterly dominated the nation’s political discourse — four of them in its highest elected office — many still don’t see Trump as a politician.

“He’s a unique figure with a unique set of capabilities that defy gravity,” Madden said, and any imitators would find themselves quickly plummeting to earth. “He blocks out the sun against any of his critics. He controls the media cycle with one click on his phone, with one sound bite every single day.”

Does truth even matter?

“Truth always matters,” said Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster and strategist, who said any client thinking otherwise would be shown the door. “That doesn’t mean it always prevails, but it always matters. Reality matters.”

And yet.

An NBC News survey, taken in mid-October, showed Democrat Kamala Harris holding a 10-point lead over Trump on the question of which candidate was viewed as honest and trustworthy. The findings were consistent with other polls conducted throughout the Trump era.

Even so, Trump didn’t just win a second lease on the White House, sweeping all seven of the decisive battleground states. He is on track to narrowly win the popular vote, something he failed to manage in either of his previous two presidential campaigns.

Christine Matthews, a pollster for center-right campaigns and causes, has researched Trump‘s political appeal.

Although certain facts are objectively true — about the crime rate falling, about Haitians not devouring household pets, and so on — Matthews said those truths weren’t necessarily getting through to Trump supporters who took in their information “through highly siloed, very fractured sources. In some cases it’s social media, or memes. It’s YouTube. It’s TikTok. It’s ‘what people are saying.’ ”

And even if they saw Trump’s deceptions for what they were, Matthews said, those inclined to support the GOP nominee — out of concern for inflation, border security or because they didn’t like Harris’ policies or her laugh — found plenty of reasons to excuse his hyperbole and outright lies. Such as: “He exaggerates. He’s a loudmouth. He says things, but he doesn’t really mean them.”

That sound you hear is a thousand fact-checkers, weeping.

Joe Trippi, who has spent decades managing Democratic campaigns from the local to presidential levels, said the party and its candidates can no longer count on conventional media — the three major broadcast networks, CNN, MSNBC, newspapers such as this one — or most social media to counter the lies and distortions billowing from Fox News, Elon Musk’s execrable X or other assertively pro-Trump outlets.

“Journalism and a party that relies on buying ads to combat the lies doesn’t work,” said Trippi, who has started his own social media platform, Sez Us, in hopes of boosting a media ecosystem that elevates civility, credibility and truth-telling.

Jane Kirtley is a professor of media ethics and law at the University of Minnesota, who’s spent years writing about those subjects.

She said the erosion of truth-telling standards and the rise of what Kellyanne Conway, the Trump advisor, famously called “alternative facts” have been a long time coming. “The issue goes back decades in terms of lack of media literacy, lack of critical thinking, platforms that are now viewed by many as news delivery systems when they’re little more than propaganda,” Kirtley said.

Despite the challenges — shrinking audiences, political antagonism, a dire economic landscape — she said independent media must continue “to call out lies and call them lies, if that’s what they are” and, whenever possible, refute them “with concrete evidence.”

But she has no illusions. Kirtley has a relative, she said, who shuts down any familial fact-checking by stating, “ ‘I have other sources of information than you do.’” And that ends the discussion.

“It may be insurmountable, and if that’s true, we may as well give up,” Kirtley said of efforts to fight truth decay and make politicians pay a price for flagrantly lying. “But I’m not quite ready to give up.”

Neither am I.