News/Commentary

‘We don’t have all the facts’: Herschel Walker takes major heat for alleged illegal contribution of campaign funds

May 4, 2023 | | Print Article

Failed Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker allegedly solicited hundreds of thousands of dollars for his own business during the 2022 election, despite reportedly having portrayed the money as being for his campaign.

Critics say this bombshell could mean jail time for the former NFL star. But others say it’s more likely that, based on Walker’s political inexperience, he “had no idea what he was doing,” and that this was just an innocent mistake.

The alleged “innocent mistake” was made in March of 2022 when Walker emailed a rep for billionaire donor Dennis Washington asking him to max-out his contribution to the campaign and then send another $535,200 to Walker’s company, H.R. Talent, a firm he’d reportedly never disclosed in his financial statements.

This was a big no-no …

But it gets worse.

“[E]mails reveal that not only did Washington complete Walker’s wire requests, he was under the impression that these were, in fact, political contributions,” according to The Daily Beast, which broke this story Tuesday.

“In the best possible circumstances, legal experts told The Daily Beast, the emails suggest violations of federal fundraising rules; in the worst case, they could be an indication of more serious crimes, such as wire fraud,” the outlet confirmed.

To Washington’s credit, his team reportedly eventually raised concerns with Walker about the money.

“When a third party informed a Washington Companies executive that the money couldn’t be used for political purposes, they raised the issue with Walker, asking at one point whether the funds should be redirected to a super PAC supporting his candidacy,” according to The Daily Beast.

“Walker never contributed any of his own money to his campaign, according to Federal Election Commission filings, and it’s unclear what happened to these particular funds. Walker may have ultimately returned the money to Washington, but he did not reroute the money to the super PAC, according to FEC filings and a person with direct knowledge of the events,” the outlet notes.

The Emails

The emails reviewed by The Daily Beast start with one sent on March 1st from Walker’s personal AOL account to Jerry Lemon, the chief financial officer at the Washington Companies.

“Wire Instructions for Team Herschel People’s Champion Committee,” the subject line reportedly read, referencing a joint fundraising committee (THPCC) for the Walker campaign.

The email itself reportedly directed Lemon to wire over a total of $600,000, most of it directed to H.R. Talent.

A couple days in, the money started flowing.

“FEC records show that the $64,800 appears to have been split into six even donations to THPCC in the maximum allowable amount, attributed to Washington, his wife, his two sons, and their wives. It’s unclear what happened to the $535,200. But nine months later, Walker was asking his friend for still more cash,” according to The Daily Beast.

Indeed, in a Nov 28th email, Tim McHugh, the executive vice president for the Washington Corporations, confirmed that the money had all been sent but asked about whether the money to H.R. Talent should be redirected.

In a reply sent the following day, Walker ignored the question and instead asked for another $100,000 or so to be sent to the company.

Leftists are convinced this bombshell news means the worst for Walker:

But conservatives aren’t so sure.

“The best possible spin on this is that Walker is a complete idiot who had no idea what he was doing and had 0 competent people around to advise him. All of which explains how he managed to lose a winnable seat in a state where Republicans otherwise did great in state wide races,” A.H. Hamilton, a lawyer who’s written for National Review, tweeted.

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Vivek Saxena
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