Pete Hegseth, President-elect Trump's pick for secretary of defense, has denied allegations that he sexually assaulted a woman in 2017, saying in a statement through his lawyer that he was subject to blackmail.

Timothy Parlatore said his client "is completely innocent."

"He was cleared after a police investigation determined that the woman was the aggressor in the situation and was then the subject of blackmail," Parlatore said in a statement. "False claims like this undermine the gravity of real sexual assault cases."

Hegseth, a former Fox News personality, was investigated as part of an alleged sexual assault in October 2017 at a hotel in Monterey, Calif., in which the victim also........

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