Fox News host Pete Hegseth's attorney on Sunday confirmed to NBC News that Hegseth, whom President-elect Donald Trump has nominated to be his defense secretary, paid a woman an undisclosed amount after she accused him of sexual assault.

Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of defense, was involved in a police investigation into an alleged sexual assault in 2017, local officials in California confirmed Thursday night.

Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary, paid a woman who accused him of sexual assault to head off the threat of a baseless lawsuit, according to Hegseth’s lawyer.

A lawyer for the Fox star, said in a statement that Hegseth settled in December 2020 only because he feared his career would suffer if her allegations were made public.

CNN’s Kyung Lah reports on a 2017 police investigation of an alleged sexual assault involving President-elect Donald Trump’s defense secretary pick Pete Hegseth.

Hegseth was tapped by Trump earlier this week to lead the Department of Defense in the president-elect's second term. The sexual assault accusation from 2017 quickly resurfaced, with Trump transition team members admitting that it caught them by surprise.

This week, a report emerged revealing police investigated Hegseth for alleged sexual misconduct in Monterey, California in 2017. Now, The Washington Post reports the veteran and Fox News host paid the woman who accused him of sexual assault as part of a non-disclosure agreement.