Pete Hegseth and his team are doing a full-court press to try to save his nomination as SecDef and are going as far as threatening the woman who filed a police report for rape against him with legal action if the Senate doesn't confirm him.
Hegseth's attorney, Tim Parlatore told Jake Tapper on Wednesday he feels Pete was extorted by his accuser because he paid her to keep quiet.
Tonight, he took it further with Kaitlin Collins by threatening legal action.
COLLINS: It was settled in an agreement with this woman in 2017. Yesterday when you were talking to Jake Tapper, you said that you believed it's extortion. But of course, as you know, extortion is also a crime. So if you felt that it was extortion, why not go to the police at the time?
PARLATORE: Well, it was a decision that we made and the email from the attorney, I don't, yeah, it was something that I don't know if it quite rises to the level of a criminal extortion that the police would take it on, but I think it certainly does meet the definition under the California law for civil extortion.
And it was something that we were considering at the time. And quite frankly, with the violation of the agreement, if he is not confirmed as the Secretary of Defense, we may still bring a civil extortion claim against her.
COLLINS: So if he is not ultimately confirmed because of these allegations, you may take legal action against the person at the center of that agreement.
