Tuesday was Day 22 of Herschel Walker failing to file a defamation suit against those who besmirched his reputation and presented him as an aider and abettor of abortion.
On Oct. 3, the Daily Beast published a devastating article headlined, “‘Pro-Life’ Herschel Walker Paid for Girlfriend’s Abortion.”
Walker built a legendary football career at the University of Georgia and in the pros as #34, brushing off the blows of linebackers and then outrunning everyone else.
His days of lowering his shoulder to level the Boom! are long past. So he went to this nearest defensive weapon of choice: Twitter.
“I’m not taking this anymore,” Walker tweeted, adding he planned “to sue the Daily Beast for this defamatory lie. It will be filed tomorrow morning.”
Tomorrow came and went. No lawsuit.
But he did go on Fox News to complain about the allegations’ anonymous nature, calling them “lies.” This came even after his son Christian, a MAGA man himself, told his dad in a video posted on Twitter to stop “lying and making a mockery of us.”
Undeterred by Walker’s legal threat, the Daily Beast carried another story saying the unnamed woman who had the abortion later bore one of his children. And against his wishes to boot. It would seem the website might really be asking for it now.
After the initial story, campaign lawyer Robert Ingram said, “those who falsely accuse Herschel Walker in the media will be held accountable.”
A couple of days later, Ingram told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “We are investigating” the possibility of a suit.
Three weeks have passed, so I reached out to Ingram to ask why no lawsuit has been filed.
Ingram told me he’s still “researching and investigating that issue. I’m not sure where that investigation will lead.”
“I have been directed to move against those responsible,” Ingram continued, adding that “good lawyers don’t just go out and file a lawsuit.”
Ingram is a good lawyer. He’s the former president of the state bar association and chairman of the state Judicial Qualifications Commission, which investigates and sanctions problematic judges.
Good lawyers also know that suing someone for defaming Walker would be a tall order. First, Walker, a public figure for decades, threw himself into the political arena as a candidate and made himself a target on the subject of abortion with his firm anti-abortion views.
“It is very difficult for a political candidate to win a lawsuit subject to the actual malice standard,” said Cynthia Counts, a veteran First Amendment lawyer. “Actual malice” means public officials can’t recover damages for libel unless they prove the defamer knew the statement was false or had “reckless disregard” as to whether it was false or not.
Second, the truth is almost always a defense in libel and defamation suits. That means that Hersch would be subject to some harsh questioning in pre-trial depositions from some very unfriendly attorneys. Under oath.
My guess is a suit will never be filed. Either Walker wins the election and then moves onto bigger and better things. Or he loses and heads back to being Herschel Walker for $25,000 — or more — per speech.
The fact that his stump statements often read like a bowl of alphabet soup has been waved off. There have also been repeated reports of his inability to navigate around the truth — about his business record, his ties to law enforcement and his family. Of course, bending the truth and even outright lying is no longer a non-starter in politics. It can even make you president.
I believe a large swath of Walker’s supporters figure that some, or even most, of the allegations against him are true. But they just don’t care. Herschel Walker has an “R” after his name. And a “34″ on his back.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution