WASHINGTON — An FBI background check on Pete Hegseth, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Defense Department, was passed on late Friday to the ranking members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the report . days before his confirmation hearing on Tuesday.
Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., chairman of the panel, and Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., the ranking member, are the only senators who have the report, the two sources said.
The 25-member committee does not necessarily have to review Hegseth’s background check to proceed with the nomination hearing, but two committee sources familiar with the process said it was “unprecedented” that the report took so long to reach the top members of the panel.
Democrats on the committee NBC News spoke to are frustrated by the delay and suggest the FBI report may not be thorough, especially when it concerns a Cabinet pick embroiled in controversy. One person who has worked closely with Hegseth in the past and another who has been contacted by Congress about Hegseth told NBC News they are concerned the FBI has not contacted them.
An FBI spokesperson declined to comment.
Since Trump announced his intention to nominate Hegseth, the military veteran and former Fox News host has been embroiled in a slew of controversies and negative accusations.
“I don’t think I’m allowed to look at the FBI investigation before the hearing,” Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., told NBC News on Friday. “I also think it’s probably not comprehensive. … An FBI investigation is not the most important thing, but even that we should not look into it.”
Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., said the FBI background check should address Hegseth’s “significant personal issues” but said, “The biggest problem I have is that he doesn’t seem willing to do this work in any way.” to do.”
Kelly, like other Democrats on the Armed Services Committee interviewed by NBC News, said he would prefer to see the report before the hearing, especially after Hegseth’s team told most Democrats he would not be available for review until after the hearing. a meeting.
Three Democratic aides told NBC News that the response they received from Hegseth’s team was that they would see them on January 15, the day after the hearing was scheduled.
Hegseth’s team reached out to a few Democrats on the committee in the days leading up to Christmas and Hanukkah, but at that point had not yet filed the necessary paperwork or scheduled a meeting with Reed, the panel’s top Democrat, according to multiple Democratic aides.
Reed met with Hegseth in his office for less than 25 minutes on Wednesday, saying in a statement afterward that the meeting “did not allay my concerns about Mr. Hegseth’s lack of qualifications and raised more questions than answers.”
A Trump transition official called the complaints “partisan fuss designed to delay the confirmation process at a time when it is incredibly critical that President Trump have his national security team on the ground on day one.”
“Mr. Hegseth and his team have been proactively reaching out to all SASC Democrats (and in fact all Senate Democrats) for weeks,” the official said. “In fact, we reached out to several SASC Democrats well before Thanksgiving, and I note that those offices either did not respond or declined to meet with Mr. Hegseth in December.”
Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, declined to meet with Hegseth, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter.
“Senator Hirono has not met any of the President-elect’s candidates. She wants to hear from them publicly and officially,” a spokesperson for Hirono said.
According to an aide to a senator who serves on several high-profile committees, Hegseth is the only nominee who declined an invitation to meet with them. “It’s the art of jamming,” this assistant told NBC News.
But the transition official pushed back: “Despite a poor response and multiple communications attacking the nominee before these senators have even met him, Mr. Hegseth is doing his utmost to meet with as many Democratic senators as possible before and after his nomination. to belong.”
Aside from Reed, Democrats on the panel will have to wait until after the hearing, and in some cases, after Trump’s inauguration, to meet with Hegseth, according to multiple Democrats who have revealed their plans.
“I can’t think of any other candidate for secretary of defense who has not made himself available to all members of the committee of jurisdiction,” said a longtime Democratic aide who served on the panel with a high degree of familiarity with the confirmation process , which fogged up several times. administrations.
“And we haven’t had a SecDef nominee in at least 20 years where people are concerned about FBI background checks. This is standard stuff,” the aide added. “I would have been shocked if I had heard someone ask the question, ‘Did we do that?’ [Mark] Esper’s background check? Or [Lloyd] Austin? Or Ash Carter?’”
Hegseth’s attorney Tim Parlatore told NBC News that they believed the FBI background check had been completed earlier this week. He said Hegseth’s team had not been provided with anything for review by the FBI and that they did not expect to receive a copy before the hearing.
There has been intense media scrutiny as to why Hegseth was forced to resign as leader of two military organizations, Vets for Freedom and Concerned Veterans for America. A December 1 story in the New Yorker detailed allegations of Hegseth’s repeated drunkenness at work events and other inappropriate behavior, in addition to financial mismanagement. Hegseth has denied these allegations.
But key leaders who had worked at the organizations said the FBI had not yet contacted them this week or Friday afternoon to participate in a background check on Hegseth.
In the case of Vets for Freedom, Republican megadonor Paul Singer, one of the group’s top backers, ordered a financial audit, a forensic accounting, of the organization in 2009 after it ran out of money under Hegseth’s leadership, according to a former Vets for Freedom employee. The audit lasted months and revealed about half a million dollars in debt, and copies were given to Singer and two Vets for Freedom advisers, political consultant Dan Senor and political commentator Margaret Hoover, among others.
After the audit, Singer asked Brian Wise, head of another group that helps Blue and Gold Star families, Military Families United, to take over Vets for Freedom and incorporate it into his group, the former employee said. Hegseth has not publicly commented on the audit.
There was no immediate response to an email to Elliott Investment Management, the firm that Singer founded and where Senor is a partner. Wise said he had not been contacted by the FBI and declined to answer questions about Hegseth’s appointment.
Senate Democrats have raised concerns about Hegseth’s stewardship of these veterans groups. These Democrats have requested internal reports from these two military groups but have not received them, a Senate aide said.
“Your record of gross mismanagement of organizations you previously led raises alarms about your ability to lead a department with a budget of nearly $850 billion,” wrote Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. , Hegseth in a letter this week, “showing more than half of the requested discretionary federal spending.”
Still, Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., who has been concerned about Hegseth’s past — particularly his drinking — told NBC News on Thursday that there are no known “no” votes from Republicans on the committee.
“There are certainly people who haven’t said yes or no yet,” Cramer added. “But I think he’s doing fine.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
