Herschel Walker, a Georgia Republican nominee campaigning for a U.S. Senate seat, was exposed after falsely claiming he worked in law enforcement and for the FBI.
According to a report from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the former Republican President Donald Trump-endorsed candidate publicly claimed he has worked for Georgia’s Cobb County Police Department and as an FBI agent.
“I’ve been in criminal justice all my life," he said during a 2017 speech.
In 2019, Walker allegedly bragged to soldiers at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state about his time spent “at Quantico at the FBI training school. Y’all didn’t know I was an agent?”
Apparently, Walker's alleged past was news to local Georgia law enforcement agencies, and to the FBI, as they had no knowledge or recollection of his claims.
Walker also spoke at a suicide prevention event for the Army in 2013, saying he packed a loaded gun to hunt down a man over a late car delivery.
The incident later prompted him to seek a mental health specialist who diagnosed Walker with dissociative identity disorder.
The Journal-Constitution also noted Walker "majored in criminal justice during his time at the University of Georgia," though he did not graduate.
Walker also touted himself as an "honorary deputy in Cobb County."
However, the Cobb County Police Department said they had no record of being linked to Walker, and the Cobb sheriff’s office couldn't confirm he was an "honorary deputy."
Former DeKalb County District Attorney J. Tom Morgan told the newspaper that even if Walker was as he claimed, it would not give him law enforcement authority.
"It’s like a junior ranger badge,” said Morgan.
Morgan added that many Georgia Sheriffs halted doling out such honors amid concerns of citizens using the paperwork to impersonate police officers–which is a crime in Georgia.
The Journal-Constitution referred to Georgia law in an attempt to ascertain whether or not Walker committed a crime by lying about his work in law enforcement in his speeches.
According to the state law:
"A person who falsely holds himself out as a peace officer or other public officer or employee with intent to mislead another into believing that he is actually such officer commits the offense of impersonating an officer and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine of not more than $1,000.00 or by imprisonment for not less than one nor more than five years, or both.”
One connection Walker has had with law enforcement was from an incident in September 2001, during which police responded to a disturbance in the home he shared with his wife at the time in Irving, Texas.
Walker was described as "volatile" and he threatened "having a shootout with police," according to the police report.
The Huffington Post noted Walker has stopped mentioning his claims of being in law enforcement since he started campaigning for a Senate seat, currently held by first-term Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock.
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