The New York Times dropped its latest 'bombshell scandal' involving Trump’s defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth

The New York Times dropped its latest "bombshell scandal" involving President-elect Donald Trump's defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth .

The Times ' hit piece focused on a prior Army training incident involving Hasenbein , a former Special Forces master sergeant.

Court records and documents obtained by The Federalist show there’s far more to the story than the Times lets on.

Judge Jacqueline Tubbs ruled that Hasenbein met his burden of providing evidence that UCI occurred.

Tubbs also ruled that the Convening Authority’s “action of initiating GOMORs to two key-eyewitnesses created the appearance of unlawful command influence” Tubbs barred the government from further cross-examining Ewald and Bacon and “calling any witness to attack [their] credibility”.

The master sergeant retired from active duty and was honorably discharged in October 2021 .

Hasenbein filed a defamation case against the military contractor who conducted the training simulation in December 2020 .

Hegseth ’s lawyer said the media have a “bizarre desire to try to find anything that can, in any way, be painted as negative about somebody [like Pete ]. It's just straight up mudslinging.”.