The Associated Press reports:

While Matt Gaetz has withdrawn from the nomination process for attorney general, President-elect Donald Trump has picked several other people for his Cabinet and key staff positions who have been accused of some form of sexual misconduct.

Trump himself has long been accused of abusing or mistreating women and once was caught bragging about grabbing women by the genitals. He was found liable by a New York City jury for sexual abuse and defamation and eventually ordered to pay the woman, E. Jean Carroll, $83 million in damages.

Taken together, there are a striking number of incidents in which potential high-ranking government officials in Trump’s second administration face allegations of sexual abuse. Trump and all of his picks for government have denied the claims against them, with some of the people accused arguing the cases are driven by politics.

Here’s a look at what’s known about the cases: [Continue reading…]

The Washington Post reports:

An emergency room nurse contacted police in 2017 after treating a woman who said that, while drinking with colleagues after a political gathering several nights earlier, she may have been drugged and was then sexually assaulted by a man she later identified as Pete Hegseth, according to records released late Wednesday by the Monterey Police Department.

A lawyer for Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for defense secretary, has said the encounter was consensual. Authorities declined to bring charges in the case. Hegseth later paid the woman an undisclosed sum as part of a nondisclosure agreement.

The documents offer the most detailed account yet of the steps police took to investigate Hegseth as part of an incident that has been roiling Trump’s team since the former president announced the former Fox News host was his pick to run the Defense Department. [Continue reading…]