A senior adviser to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has apparently been reading books about “Asian wife sharing” that contain scenes with transgender “ladyboys.”
Eric Geressy, an Iraq War veteran and Hegseth’s “best mentor” who was named senior adviser to the secretary of defense for strategy earlier this year, was linked via email to a public Goodreads profile featuring those explicit publications and some of Hegseth’s books, according to a Mother Jones report Thursday.
Titles included “Asian Wife Went With Her Dad’s Friend: A Cuckold Story” and “Thai Wife Sharing And Watching: 10 Different Stories,” according to reporter Dan Friedman, who added that the page was taken down after he sent questions to the defense department and Geressy.
Friedman reported that Geressy’s reading habits were a concern because of his past relationships with foreign women. He said the Pentagon could view extra-marital relationships—especially with foreign nationals—as a potential intelligence breach. Friedman reported that the Pentagon said that it has never considered Geressy, 55, a security risk.
Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell told Friedman in a statement: “Geressy has served for 38 years in the government, has been vetted numerous times by the relevant agencies, and has never posed a security risk or engaged in improper behavior as this piece tries to suggest. Mother Jones has stooped to a new low with this shoddy hit piece and should be ashamed of itself.”
The Daily Beast has also reached out to the Pentagon.
Friedman’s reporting took a twist after he approached the Pentagon for comment.
He was soon approached by a controversial MAGA media figure who has recently been included in the Pentagon’s subservient press corps.
The day after Friedman sent his questions to the Department of Defense, Jack Posobiec emailed him asking if he had a “creepy fetish for Asian women.” The “Pizzagate” conspiracy theorist and former Navy intelligence officer also asked the reporter if had a “history of objectifying women” and of misconduct.
Friedman wrote that the Pentagon and Posobiec each denied communicating with each other about the story, even though Friedman claimed Posobiec gave him the exact same deadline as he had given the Pentagon and Geressy.
“This was either an incredible coincidence or a deliberate message: Publish your article and get smeared,” Friedman wrote, adding later that he interpreted it as an “apparent threat.”
Friedman offered some context for Posobiec’s claims.
“Posobiec’s questions suggested one of his ‘two sources’ may have been a real woman with whom I did have a brief relationship nearly a decade ago,” he wrote. “Contrary to the email’s depiction, that relationship was perfectly amicable at the time. But it was part of some personal messiness, especially around the end of my first marriage, that is embarrassing.”
On Thursday afternoon, Posobiec, 40, posted what he said was a cease and desist letter from Friedman’s personal attorney, who warned that “publishing false and defamatory statements about Mr. Friedman will result in litigation.”
Posobiec also amplified others on the right, including Donald Trump Jr., who said they were looking forward to anything he might write about a reporter who was probing staffers at the Pentagon.
