"The Talk of the Town"
(WASHINGTON) — The Biden administration succeeded in blocking a plea deal for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed after a federal court issued an administrative stay of a hearing set for Friday.
The alleged 9/11 mastermind was expected to plead guilty as part of a plea agreement worked out by military prosecutors that would have removed the death penalty as a possibility in his case.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
(WASHINGTON) — Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary, was back on Capitol Hill Tuesday looking to shore up support as he fends off new allegations of misconduct and sexual impropriety.
The allegations were top of mind for Republican senators, one of whom called recent reports “very disturbing.” Several GOP lawmakers suggested Hegseth needed to come forward and address them.
But Hegseth, holding hands with his wife as he walked the halls, continued to ignore questions about the New Yorker report that he was forced to step down from two veteran nonprofit groups — Veterans for Freedom and Concerned Veterans for America — amid accusations of financial mismanagement, sexist behavior and other disqualifying behavior.
The magazine cited what it called a detailed seven-page whistleblower report — compiled by multiple former C.V.A. employees — stating that, at one point, Hegseth had to be restrained while drunk from joining the dancers on the stage of a Louisiana strip club, where he had brought his team. The report also says that Hegseth, who was married at the time, and other members of his management team sexually pursued the organization’s female staffers, the magazine said.
ABC News has not independently confirmed the magazine’s account. Hegseth’s attorney, Tim Parlatore, told The New Yorker the claims were “outlandish.”
“We’re going to meet with every senator that wants to meet with us, across the board, and we welcome their advice as we go through the advice and consent process,” Hegseth told reporters as he arrived for a second day of sitdowns with senators.
Hegseth was asked dozens of questions by reporters, including what he would say to those troubled by the allegations, whether the women who’ve spoken out are lying, whether he had a drinking problem and if the Trump transition team had been aware of the allegations.
He did not respond, including when asked by ABC’s Elizabeth Schulze about GOP Sen. Joni Ernst saying she thinks he should have agreed to a background check.
Trump’s team came out in defense of Hegseth earlier Tuesday. Senior adviser Jason Miller, in an interview on CNN, attempted to brush off the allegations as “innuendo and gossip.”
“So, when it comes to Pete Hegseth, there aren’t any concerns, and we feel very good about his positioning for being confirmed by the Senate,” Miller said. “Now we have to take the process very seriously.”
Republican senators, peppered with questions on Hegseth and other recent Trump picks as they returned to Washington this week, also say they want a “normal” confirmation process to play — which would routinely include FBI background checks.
But some of their statements, so far, stopped short of glowing endorsements.
“I think some of these articles are very disturbing. He obviously has a chance to defend himself here, but some of this stuff is — it’s going to be difficult. Time will tell,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“Leadership comes from the top, and I want to make sure that every young woman who joins the military space is respected,” Graham said, seemingly referencing Hegseth’s comments against women serving in combat roles.
Sen. Josh Hawley, another member of the key panel, argued Hegseth would have the opportunity to answer all questions during the confirmation process though notably indicated some of his Republican colleagues are “very worried.”
“I would just urge my Republican colleagues, who are very worried, I know a number of them are expressing public concern — it’s fine, but I would just urge them, before they make up their minds, right before they make up their minds, let them have this hearing and listen to let’s go through the process here and give them a shot to answer this and more and to lay out this vision for you,” Hawley said.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville, who stood by Hegseth as a “great” pick on Monday, had similarly suggested Hegseth could face headwinds.
“Obviously, if it’s to a certain degree, people are not going to vote to confirm it,” Tuberville said when asked about the allegations after their meeting. “But what I know when I talk to him about what I’ve read, what I’ve studied and been around him, I’ll vote for him.”
Many suggesting that he needs to come forward and address it.
“Well, these allegations that have come up just in the last 12 to 14 hours are a surprise to all of us, and so yes, he does need to address those because this was not something of which we were aware, nor was President Trump aware of them,” said Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., who met with Hegseth on Monday night with a group of senators.
Asked about his ability to make it through the nomination process, Lummis said she hopes to meet with him one-on-one and deferred to how he addresses the new allegations.
“It depends on how he addresses the issues that have been raised,” Lummis said. “Some of the earlier issues that were raised about an incident in California I think were satisfactorily addressed and would not have interfered with his nomination, but some new things that have come to light in the last 12 to 14 hours are things he needs to address.”
“I have read all the articles, I have seen all the allegations. And Mr. Hegseth is going to have to address it,” Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said.
“I want to know if they’re true, and I want to hear his side of the story. And he’s going to have to address them,” Kennedy added.
Hegseth met Tuesday with Sen. Deb Fischer, one of two Republican women on the Senate Armed Services Committee, and GOP Sen. Bill Hagerty in their respective offices.
He was also scheduled to meet with Republican Sens. Ted Budd, Shelley Moore Capito, Jim Risch and Eric Schmitt.
Schmitt said he was “definitely going to ask questions” about the allegations.
Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
(WASHINGTON) — House and Senate lawmakers on Monday met for joint session to certify President-elect Donald Trump’s 2024 victory.
Vice President Kamala Harris, who presided over the ceremony, read the results aloud.
Republicans cheered loudly as she announced Trump’s 312 electoral votes, while Democrats did the same for her 226 electoral votes.
The vote count occurred exactly four years after thousands of pro-Trump supporters violently stormed the U.S. Capitol, temporarily disrupting lawmakers affirming President Joe Biden’s 2020 win.
Monday’s events marked a return to the traditional ceremonial task that had long been a subdued affair until Trump’s challenge of his loss to Biden, though heightened security measures remain in place.
A winter snowstorm blanketed Washington but lawmakers forged ahead with the constitutionally mandated responsibility. The House floor was packed with lawmakers for the count, which was the final step in validating Electoral College results.
This year, President Biden emphasized the importance of America’s bedrock principle of a peaceful transfer of power but urged the country to never forget what happened in 2021.
“We should be proud that our democracy withstood this assault,” Biden wrote in an op-ed published late Sunday by the Washington Post. “And we should be glad we will not see such a shameful attack again this year.”
Harris, too, called it a “sacred obligation” — one she said she would “uphold guided by love of country, loyalty to our Constitution and my unwavering faith in the American people.”
As she made her way to the House chamber, Harris was asked what people should take away from Monday’s events.
“Democracy must be upheld by the people,” she said, raising one finger in the air.
Speaker Mike Johnson, who was just elected to a second term to lead the House with Trump’s assistance, and Vice President Harris called the chamber to order shortly after 1 p.m. ET after the procession of ballots and senators through the Capitol.
Harris opened the votes from each state and handed them to the House tellers, who read aloud the result.
Unlike in 2021, there were no objections to the results. Harris conceded to Trump the day after Election Day, and no Democrats have challenged the outcome as many Republican allies of Trump did in 2020.
Vice President-elect JD Vance, who was a senator from Ohio when he was tapped to be Trump’s running mate, was seated in the front row during the count.
Trump, ahead of the certification, posted on his social media platform that it will be “A BIG MOMENT IN HISTORY. MAGA!”
The president-elect will be sworn in on Monday, Jan. 20.
Trump has claimed his win is a “mandate” from the American people to implement his agenda for the economy, immigration and more.
He is returning to the White House with Republicans controlling both the House and Senate. The 119th Congress was sworn in last Friday.
ABC News’ Allison Pecorin and John Parkinson contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
(WASHINGTON) — The National Guardsman who in 2021 pegged Pete Hegseth as a potential “insider threat” clarified in an interview with ABC News that his complaint targeted a “Deus Vult” tattoo on the former Fox News host’s arm — not a cross on his chest, as Hegseth has repeatedly claimed.
President-elect Donald Trump last week tapped Hegseth to lead the Department of Defense. He listed Hegseth’s experience as a veteran and his media experience as his reasons for the choice.
As Reuters and The Associated Press first reported, Sgt. DeRicko Gaither sent an image of the “Deus Vult” tattoo to Maj. Gen. William Walker shortly before President Joe Biden’s inauguration. The phrase, which translates from Latin to “God wills it,” has been co-opted by white nationalist groups, experts have said.
“This information is quite disturbing, sir,” Gaither wrote in the email to Walker, who has not responded to ABC News’ request for comment. “This falls along the lines of (an) Insider Threat.”
Hegseth claimed in his book “The War on Warriors” that his “orders were revoked” ahead of Biden’s inauguration because fellow service members had flagged a tattoo of the Jerusalem Cross on his chest as a white nationalist symbol. As a result, Hegseth wrote, he resigned from the military.
But Gaither clarified in a text message to ABC News that his complaint targeted the “Deus Vult” tattoo, despite “the narrative that has been out there.”
“Just so we are clear. This has NOTHING to do with the Jerusalem Cross tattoo on his chest,” Gaither wrote in the text. “This has everything to do with the ‘DEUS VULT’ Tattoo on his inner bicep.”
Gaither’s sensitivity to what he described as the “disturbing” imagery in Hegseth’s tattoos came at a time when the military was grappling with the fact that dozens of active and former service members had participated in the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol.
Gaither, who confirmed to ABC News the contents of his complaint — which he wrote just one week after Jan. 6, emphasized that “this wasn’t then and isn’t now a personal attack towards Pete Hegseth.”
“The information received and [the] email sent on January 14th was the protocol that had to be followed because of the position assignment that I was assigned to,” explained Gaither, who was at the time assigned as the Guards’ head of security. “The protocol was followed and would be followed again if this issue involved any other service member, myself included.”
As ABC News has reported, Hegseth fired back at the initial coverage of this matter in The Associated Press by claiming it was “Anti-Christian bigotry.”
“They can target me — I don’t give a damn — but this type of targeting of Christians, conservatives, patriots and everyday Americans will stop on DAY ONE at DJT’s DoD,” Hegseth wrote on X.
Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.