Susan Collins denies she ‘turned down’ meeting with Hegseth accuser

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) is denying that she reportedly rejected an offer to meet privately with the woman who has accused President-elect Donald Trump’s defense secretary nominee, Pete Hegseth, of sexual assault.

Collins, a centrist who could prove vital to Hegseth’s future but so far remains undecided on his confirmation, was approached in recent weeks by a third-party individual with supposed access to the alleged accuser from an extramarital affair in 2017 that Hegseth has defended as a consensual encounter.