Sen. Jack Reed (R.I.), the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, called the FBI’s background check of Pete Hegseth, President-elect Trump’s nominee to lead the Pentagon, “insufficient.”
The FBI’s background check of Hegseth did not include material from a woman who accused the nominee of sexual misconduct in 2017.
“You and I have both have seen the FBI background investigation of Hegseth and I want to say for the record the investigation was insufficient, frankly,” Reed said to Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-Miss.).
Reed emphasized that FBI investigators did not have access to key witnesses nor an audit of Concerned Veterans for America, the advocacy group that Hegseth led for several years.
“There are still FBI obligations to talk to people. They have not had access to the forensic audit, which I referenced to and which the person had access to was quite critical of Mr. Hegseth,” he said.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a member of the committee, is calling for senators to have access to the testimony of additional witnesses.