Amid mounting tensions in major files of interest to the US military, especially in the Middle East, acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan abandoned his quest for the top Pentagon job on Tuesday as reports emerged of domestic violence in his family.
Shanahan said he made the decision, first announced by U.S. President Donald Trump in a tweet, to prevent his three children from reliving "a traumatic chapter in our family life."
"It is unfortunate that a painful and deeply personal family situation from long ago is being dredged up," Shanahan, a former Boeing executive, said in a statement.
USA Today reported that the FBI had been examining a nine-year-old dispute involving Shanahan and his then-wife.
The newspaper reported that Shanahan said in a statement late on Monday that he "never laid a hand on" his former wife. USA Today reported that he and his wife both claimed they had been punched by the other and that his wife was arrested after the incident but the charges were dropped.
The Washington Post also reported that Shanahan's teenage son allegedly hit his mother with a baseball bat in 2011, when the Shanahans were already living apart, leaving her unconscious in a pool of blood.
"Bad things can happen to good families . . . and this is a tragedy, really," the paper quoted Shanahan as saying. He added the disclosure of the incident would "ruin my son's life."
Reuters reported that hours after naming Secretary of the Army Mark Esper to replace Shanahan as acting secretary, Trump told reporters he would likely nominate the former Raytheon executive and army veteran to the defense secretary position. Esper will take over as acting secretary on Monday, the Pentagon said.
Shanahan, 56, came into the acting position in January, after then Defense Secretary Jim Mattis abruptly resigned over policy differences with Trump.
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