Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks have been rife with scandal and controversy and it’s only serving to get worse as horrifying new reporting has revealed that the new Trump-era Pentagon spokesperson has been credibly accused of deeply troubling and sickening abuse against his wife and children.
Donald’s Defense Secretary choice, Pete Hegseth, was enveloped in his own disturbing controversy when his ex-sister-in-law came forward with allegations of abuse perpetrated against her sister by Hegseth and a rather damning old email from Hegseth’s mother that appeared to confirm those allegations and make a few similar ones of her own — despite her attempts to since walk back those claims. However, in spite of those stomach-churning allegations, Hegseth was still successfully confirmed for the Secretary of Defense position last month.
On Monday, Hegseth announced his official mouthpiece as Sean Parnell — the very same man who was forced to abandon his Senate run in late 2021 over horrifying abuse allegations lodged against him by his estranged wife, according to disturbing new reporting released by The Daily Beast.
In a court order that granted Laurie Snell sole custody of the three children she shares with Parnell, Butler County, Pennsylvania, Judge James Arner wrote, “She described many incidents. She provided factual details of each incident, including when they happened and what happened. She testified in a convincing manner.”
Snell testified in court, under oath, that Parnell had regularly and repeatedly abused both herself and their children. She alleged that her estranged husband had choked her and even hit one of their children so hard that he left a welt on the child’s back. She further alleged that Purnell once punched a closet door which resulted in a bruise on one of their children’s faces and proceeded to berate the child and tell them that it was their fault.
She told the court that Parnell once left her on the side of the road without a vehicle and told her to “go get an abortion.”
43-year-old Parnell is a decorated combat veteran who was deployed to Afghanistan while serving in the U.S. Army and served as the senior adviser at Concerned Veterans for America during the time that Hegseth was head of the organization.
Speaking of Parnell in a post on his Truth Social platform, Donald Trump wrote, “A Great American Patriot, Sean is a fearless Combat Veteran, who led one of the most decorated units in the Afghanistan War. He earned two Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart, while his platoon achieved an incredible record of eliminating over 350 enemy fighters.”
Parnell has, of course, vehemently denied the allegations against him, telling the court that he “never raised a hand in anger towards my wife or any of our three children.”
However, the judge in their case found Snell’s testimony to be “convincing” while, on the other hand, finding Parnell to be “somewhat evasive” and “less believable.”
“He was dressed very casually for his appearances in court, in blue jeans and untucked plaid shirts, which did not show respect for the seriousness of the occasion,” the judge wrote. “While testifying he looked mainly in the direction of his attorneys and toward members of the news media in the back of the courtroom, rather than at me.”
You can read the full report from The Daily Beast here.
Featured image via Facebook/Sean Parnell