WASHINGTON – The mother of Mr Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of defence, wrote him an e-mail in 2018 saying he had routinely mistreated women for years and displayed a lack of character.

“On behalf of all the women (and I know it’s many) you have abused in some way, I say… get some help and take an honest look at yourself,” Mrs Penelope Hegseth wrote, stating that she still loved him.

She also wrote: “I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around and uses women for his own power and ego. You are that man (and have been for years).”

Mrs Hegseth, in a phone interview with The New York Times on Nov 29, said she sent her son an immediate follow-up email at the time apologising for what she wrote.

She said she fired off the original e-mail “in anger, with emotion” when Mr Hegseth and his wife were going through a difficult divorce.

In the interview, she defended her son and disavowed the sentiments she expressed in the initial e-mail.

“It is not true. It has never been true,” she said.

She added: “I know my son. He is a good father, husband.”

Confirmation scrutiny

Questions about Mr Hegseth’s treatment of women have emerged in the weeks since Trump chose him, a veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, to lead the Pentagon. The issue is expected to be a subject of scrutiny during Senate confirmation hearings.

Reports of his infidelity have focused attention on his character and leadership, particularly for a civilian overseeing the military, where active-duty service members can be subject to prosecution for adultery under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Another issue is how the senators will view a rape complaint aga...