Massie CONFRONTS Hegseth with Maxwell Secret Recording — Hegseth STUNNED in Hearing

[0:00] Massey pressed play. 11 seconds. A woman's voice. Then a man's voice responding. [0:08] Then Massey pressed stop, looked directly at Hegseth and said, [0:13] That's you, isn't it? Hegseth did not answer for 19 seconds. [0:19] If you are new to The Hill Report, subscribe right now. [0:23] Because what happened in those 19 seconds and in the four minutes before Massey pressed play [0:28] is now in the permanent congressional record. And it is not going away. [0:33] House Oversight Committee. Wednesday morning, 11.04 a.m. Eastern, [0:40] the hearing had been billed, on the official schedule, as a follow-up session on Pentagon [0:44] contracting oversight. The kind of hearing that, on a normal week, draws a handful of staffers [0:50] and almost no press at all. By 10.50 a.m., the press gallery was full. [0:56] Word had moved through the building overnight that Massey had requested a closed-door evidentiary [1:00] review four days earlier, citing material his office had obtained through a chain of custody [1:05] that originated with a 2021 federal forfeiture case. Nobody outside a small group knew exactly [1:12] what the material was, though the rumor mill had attached several names to it by the time [1:17] the hearing gaveled in. The committee chairman had granted Massey 10 additional minutes of [1:22] questioning time, an unusual accommodation, the kind that committee staff do not grant without [1:28] first reviewing at least a summary of what is going to be introduced. And that itself signaled [1:33] something to the people in that room who knew how these procedures normally work. Massey arrived [1:38] with a single device and a folder. Nothing else. He sat down. He did not look at notes. There were no [1:44] notes. Just the folder and the device. He looked at Hegseth and said, Mr. Secretary, before I ask you [1:53] anything, I want to play something. 30 seconds. He set the device on the table. Screen down. What Massey [2:01] played was a short audio clip, 11 seconds, recovered from digital media seized during the 2021 federal [2:08] investigation into Ghislaine Maxwell's financial records and personal effects. The clip had been [2:14] logged into evidence at the time, reviewed by federal investigators in the original case, and marked in [2:19] the evidence log as containing a voice that investigators at the time could not conclusively [2:24] identify and did not have reason to pursue further given the scope of that investigation. [2:28] It had remained in a sealed evidence file for four years, untouched, one item among thousands. [2:36] Massey's office had obtained access to that file through a declassification request tied to a [2:41] separate, broader congressional inquiry into DOJ evidence handling practices, the same inquiry that [2:47] had already produced, in earlier hearings this committee has covered, documents on redaction [2:53] discrepancies and unresolved DOJ review flags going back years. In the course of that inquiry, [2:58] almost as a side note to the original purpose of the request, Massey's office had run the [3:03] unidentified voice on the 2021 clip through a voice matching analysis against a database of [3:09] Hegseth's public remarks, congressional testimony, and media appearances spanning more than a decade. [3:15] The analysis came back with what Massey's office described, in the document now sitting in his [3:20] folder, as a high confidence match. Massey pressed play. The clip ran. 11 seconds. A woman's voice. Brief. A few words. The recording [3:33] quality consistent with an older digital file. The kind of audio artifact that comes from a device that has been sitting in an [3:40] evidence locker for years. Then a second voice. A man's. Also brief. Overlapping the first by less than a second. The way real [3:50] conversations overlap and scripted ones don't. The clip ended. Massey pressed stop. The room was [3:58] completely silent. Not the rustling silence of people reaching for documents, which is the silence [4:04] this committee usually produces. The flat, immediate silence of a room where something has just been [4:09] played that nobody expected to hear in this setting. In this building. On a Wednesday morning, billed as a [4:15] routine follow-up. And everyone present is recalibrating in real time what kind of hearing [4:21] this actually turned out to be. Massey set the device down. He looked at Hegseth. He did not raise [4:29] his voice. That's you, isn't it? Hegseth's lead attorney was on his feet before the chairman could [4:37] even begin to respond. Mr. Chairman, I have to object. The provenance of whatever was just played has not [4:45] been established for this committee. Its chain of custody has not been verified in this proceeding. And any [4:51] suggestion regarding my client's voice on an unauthenticated recording is. Massey did not look at the [4:57] attorney. He did not raise his voice to match the interruption. He simply opened his folder. This is the [5:04] 2021 evidence log. He held it up so the chamber display could capture it. Item number. Date of seizure. [5:13] Custodial chain. Unbroken. Four years of sealed storage. And the declassification authorization. [5:19] Signed 11 days ago. He set it down on the table beside the device. The chain of custody is in this [5:26] folder. It has already been provided to the committee, to the chairman's office, and to counsel for the [5:32] secretary. 72 hours before this hearing began. I'm asking the secretary a direct question. The chairman [5:40] looked at both parties for a long moment. Then, the objection regarding characterization is noted. The [5:47] secretary may respond to the question as posed. Hegseth looked at his attorneys. Then, at the folder, [5:52] still sitting open on the table. Then, at the device. Closed now. Between them. He said nothing. [6:01] One second. Three. The chairman did not prompt him. Did not offer to repeat the question or move on. [6:10] The way chairmen sometimes do when a witness hesitates. Massey did not repeat the question [6:16] either. He simply sat, looking at Hegseth, the folder still open in front of him. Eight seconds. [6:22] Twelve. Fifteen. In the press gallery, several reporters had stopped typing entirely, watching [6:30] the dace instead of their screens. Eighteen seconds. At 19 seconds, Hegseth leaned toward the microphone [6:38] and said, I'd like to consult with counsel before responding to that. The Hill report. Stop here. [6:44] Because 19 seconds of silence from a sitting cabinet secretary, in response to a yes or no question [6:50] about a recording connected to a federal forfeiture case, is itself now part of the record, independent [6:56] of whatever the recording actually contains. The silence is documented. The time stamp is documented. [7:05] And the request to consult counsel before answering whether a voice is your own voice is. [7:10] Procedurally, an unusual response to what should be among the easiest questions a person can be asked. [7:16] Subscribe to the Hill report right now and hit the bell. Because Massey was not finished. And what he said [7:25] next is the part that turned this into something the chamber had not produced before. The recess lasted [7:32] six minutes. Longer than most. When the hearing resumed, the room had a different texture to it. The kind of [7:39] quiet that follows a recess everyone knows was not procedural. Hegseth's attorney spoke first, before Massey [7:46] could resume his line of questioning. Mr. Chairman, my client is unable to confirm or deny the identity [7:53] of any voice on a recording whose authentication process has not been completed in this proceeding. [7:58] And any further questioning along these lines should occur, if at all, in a closed setting given the [8:03] sensitive nature of the underlying case and the individuals associated with it. Massey looked at the [8:09] attorney for a moment, then at the chairman. Then he reached into his folder and pulled out a second [8:17] document, separate from the evidence log. This is the voice matching analysis, conducted by an [8:23] independent forensic audio firm, comparing the recording to 23 hours of the secretary's recorded [8:29] public remarks spanning 11 years. Committee testimony, interviews, public addresses, all of it lawfully [8:37] obtained, and on the public record already. He set it on the table next to the evidence log. [8:44] The analysis concluded a confidence interval of 94%. He looked at Hegseth directly. 94%. Mr. Secretary, [8:54] he let that sit for a moment. I'm not asking you to authenticate the recording. The recording is [9:01] already authenticated. It's in a federal evidence file with an unbroken chain of custody that predates [9:06] this hearing by four years. I'm asking you something much simpler. I'm asking whether you recognize [9:13] your own voice. Hegseth's response when it came was not a denial. Senator, Congressman, I want to be [9:23] clear that I have no knowledge of the context, the date, or the circumstances under which any recording [9:28] referenced here was made, and I categorically reject any implication arising from association with [9:34] names connected to that case. Massey looked at him. He did not raise his voice. He did not need to. [9:41] I didn't ask about context. I didn't ask about implication. He set the forensic report down next [9:48] to the evidence log, the two documents now side by side on the table between them. 94%. He looked at [9:56] the chairman. Mr. Chairman, I move to enter both documents into the congressional record, the 2021 [10:03] evidence log with its full chain of custody, and the independent voice matching analysis with its [10:08] complete methodology appendix. I further move that this committee formally request the unredacted case [10:14] file from the Department of Justice, including all associated recordings and their full chain of [10:19] custody documentation, for review in closed session at the earliest available date. The room, which had [10:26] been still for most of the exchange, broke open at that. Three members were speaking at once, two asking [10:32] procedural questions about the closed session request, one objecting that the matter belonged with [10:37] the Judiciary Committee rather than oversight. The chairman gaveled twice. Hegseth's second attorney was [10:45] now standing as well. Both attorneys conferring rapidly while their clients sat motionless, [10:49] hands flat on the table, looking at neither the folder nor the device, but at a fixed point [10:54] somewhere past the days. For the first time in the hearing, he did not appear to be calculating a [11:00] response. He appeared to simply be waiting for the room to move past him. When the chairman [11:05] restored order, both motions were seconded immediately and passed without recorded objection. [11:10] Massey looked at Hegseth one final time. [11:14] Mr. Secretary, I'm not going to characterize what's on that recording beyond what the evidence [11:18] log already says. He paused. But I will say this. 19 seconds is a long time to think about whether [11:25] that's your voice. The hearing adjourned shortly after. Hegseth left without speaking to reporters [11:31] waiting near the exit, walking quickly through a side hallway with both attorneys flanking him. [11:36] The Pentagon Press Office issued a one-line statement late that evening stating that the secretary [11:42] categorically denies any wrongdoing, a statement that, as several outlets noted within hours, [11:49] carefully avoided the actual question on the table. It did not deny that the voice on the [11:54] recording was his. It did not address the 94% figure. It did not address the 19 seconds. [12:01] The 2021 evidence log, the declassification authorization, and the independent forensic [12:09] voice matching analysis are now part of the permanent House Oversight Committee record. [12:13] The closed session request to the DOJ has not yet been answered, and no timeline for a response has [12:19] been provided. Subscribe to The Hill Report right now and share this video with everyone you know [12:25] immediately. Tomorrow, we release the full evidence log with chain of custody timestamps, [12:32] the complete forensic voice matching report with its methodology appendix, and the 19-second [12:38] exchange transcribed second by second exactly as it appears in the official record. [12:42] Massey played 11 seconds. Hegseth was silent for 19. The Pentagon statement, when it finally came, [12:52] didn't deny anything. Share this video. The record is public, and the silence is in it.