Considering Accusations Against Tim Walz
Anonymous allegations against Tim Walz underscore the importance of reporting all alleged child abuse.
This week, social media was rocked by allegations of child sexual abuse against Governor Tim Walz, the running mate of Vice President Kamala Harris. As far as I can ascertain, none of the allegations have been investigated by law enforcement, yet they were plastered publicly on X igniting a firestorm of controversy.
Here’s what happened:
On August 1, an anonymous person (hereafter referred to as John Doe) emailed a MAGA influencer who calls himself Black Insurrectionist. Since then, John Doe and Black have corresponded and spoken by phone. On October 13, Black published several documents on X, describing in graphic detail alleged instances of child sexual abuse.
John Doe claims he was a 14-year-old student when Walz was a teacher at Alliance High School in Nebraska. John Doe claims Walz took him to an Indigo Girls concert in March of 1995. That night, John Doe claims he was raped, but believing he had feelings for Walz, he never told anyone.
While many people are suspicious of John Doe’s claims, Walz really did take a teenage boy to an Indigo Girls concert when he lived in Alliance. According to The New York Times, “[Gwen Walz] and her husband had grown close to a gay student years earlier in Nebraska, where the Walzes met each other teaching at a public school. The couple took the student to an Indigo Girls concert, a spokeswoman for Ms. Walz said.”
But that kid was apparently a boy named Todd Almond, not John Doe. In a September interview with the Queer Love Project, Almond says, “Tim and Gwen Walz were my teachers in high school. That story in the New York Times about them taking a gay student to an Indigo Girls concert? That student was me!”
Based on Almond’s social media accounts, he remains friends with the Walzes. Almond also would have been 18 in 1995, not 14 as John Doe claims. Either John Doe is a false accuser who borrowed details out of a news article to make his lies seem more plausible, or Walz took more than one kid to an Indigo Girls concert.
According to John Doe, he and Walz remained inappropriately close that summer, and he began to feel jealous of the attention Walz paid other kids. John Doe says he found out that Walz was taking other kids to other Indigo Girls concerts.
And here’s where John Doe’s account hits another snag.
There was indeed an Indigo Girls concert on March 29, 1995, in Lincoln, Nebraska (a six hour drive from Alliance). However, the band then toured to Iowa, Indiana, New York, Rhode Island, Georgia, and Wyoming. They did not return to Nebraska that year. Unless Walz was driving students over eight hours to attend concerts in neighboring states, this doesn’t make any sense.
That autumn, John Doe claims he and Walz had an argument, and later that evening, Walz was arrested for drunk driving. That would put their argument on September 23, 1995; the night Tim Walz really was arrested for drunk driving.
On the one hand, John Doe is being extremely specific about dates and locations. On the other, some of the details don’t add up. This wouldn’t be entirely unusual for a real abuse victim dealing with trauma. PTSD can jumble memories and distort the chronology of events. Still, for an accusation this serious against someone this high profile, it underscores why Black should have reported the accusations to police instead of plastering John Doe’s emails on X.
A few other discrepancies add to the account’s overall fishiness. In several of Black’s screen captures, a cursor is visible, making it appear as if Black himself wrote the emails. It’s possible Black copied and pasted the emails into a document so he could redact John Doe’s personal info. Regardless, it looks suspicious.
Naturally, plenty of social media influencers have weighed in. Liberal heckler Brian Krassenstein posted a screen capture of an email he claims to have received from someone purporting to be John Doe and claiming he conned Black into believing that Walz abused him. Hours later, Brian also posted allegations that Black himself fabricated John Doe’s emails. Both of these things cannot be true at the same time.
Everything is about as clear as mud, underscoring how badly this whole situation was handled, and why it’s imperative to report alleged child abuse to law enforcement.
True or False?
How should we evaluate trending news stories like this? How do we distinguish real victim testimony from false accusations? How should we respond if someone ever comes to us and says they were abused?
Here are a few points to consider about this particular story:
The Anonymous Sources
We might ask, why didn’t John Doe go straight to law enforcement? Why contact an anonymous X influencer? While it may seem strange to some, in my experience as an abuse survivor and victim’s advocate, it’s typical. Victims often contact a friend, pastor, advocate, or even a random stranger online, prior to reporting. Contacting the police is a huge step and often feels dangerous. While this aspect of the story may seem fishy, it fits the normal pattern for many legitimate victims.
The bigger question is, why didn’t Black Insurrectionist encourage John Doe to report? Why didn’t he offer to help him report? Why didn’t he contact law enforcement himself? Instead, Black claims he contacted the Harris-Walz campaign. It’s unclear why or what he expected them to do. If the allegations are false, Harris-Walz would deny them. If they’re true, he gave an abuser the opportunity to fabricate a cover story. Whether you believe the allegations or not, Black’s actions make no sense.
The Suspicious Timing
The first communication between John Doe and Black occurred on August 1, five days before Walz was named as Harris’s running mate. Unfortunately, narcissistic and disturbed people do sometimes falsely accuse celebrities and politicians just to garner attention, cause trouble, or get money.
The fact that these allegations surfaced while Walz is running for office does not support their credibility. It doesn’t disprove them either. Why didn’t John Doe come forward when Walz was a teacher, or when he ran for Governor? Has John Doe ever told anyone? If he did, could those people corroborate his account? Could they confirm that this isn’t a story he made up last month?
These questions need answers, and they might have been answered had Black handled this properly.
The Statistical Improbability of False Reports
As previously noted, narcissists and mentally unwell accusers do tend to target high profile people, especially politicians running for office. However, false accusations of sexual abuse are rare, and false accusations by men are especially rare.
Most allegations (whether true or false) that pop up during election cycles are made by women who are former employees or friends of the accused. Because these accusations against Walz were made by a man, they’re extremely unusual. We aren’t talking about a consensual affair, workplace abuse, or even a sketchy relationship between two adults. We’re talking about the alleged rape of a minor teen boy.
What Should Have Happened?
As soon as Black received emails describing the sexual abuse of a child, he should have encouraged the sender to file a police report, and he should have gotten in touch with law enforcement.
This would have accomplished several things:
John Doe’s account could have been documented by police
An investigation could have determined truth and discredited lies
Depending on the location, date, and nature of the alleged crimes, charges could possibly have been pressed
If John Doe’s account is true, police could have pursued justice
If John Doe’s account is untrue, we would likely never have heard these accusations, and a great deal of controversy and libel would have been avoided
Because Black failed to report, one of two things happened. Either a real victim’s testimony was compromised and disparaged, or Black committed libel by publishing lies. Reporting abuse not only protects victims and enables justice, it also protects the falsely accused, their families, and their friends.
Always report known or suspected child abuse. In many states, it’s the law. In all states, it’s your moral responsibility.