Walsh, appointed to the Senate this year, already trails his Republican opponent in polls. Walsh plagiarized War College thesis

Sen. John Walsh substantially plagiarized his master’s thesis at the U.S. Army War College, the New York Times reported Wednesday afternoon.

The Montana Democrat, already trailing Republican Rep. Steve Daines in the polls, reportedly took about two-thirds of his 2007 thesis on Middle East policy from previously published works, either verbatim or by giving credit in the footnotes but not using quotation marks, according to the Times.


Walsh campaign spokeswoman Lauren Passalacqua wrote in an email, “This was unintentional and it was a mistake.”

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A Walsh campaign official told POLITICO, “At the time, Senator Walsh was prescribed medication used to treat PTSD. This does not excuse the mistake, but provides important context for the circumstances which the Senator was working in.”

The Times story carefully documents extensive plagiarism.

“Most strikingly, each of the six recommendations Mr. Walsh laid out at the conclusion of his 14-page paper, titled ‘The Case for Democracy as a Long Term National Strategy,’ is taken nearly word-for-word without attribution from a Carnegie Endowment for International Peace document on the same topic,” the Times’ Jonathan Martin wrote.

The senator told the Associated Press in an interview Wednesday night that he continues to take antidepressant medication.

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“Walsh said when he wrote the paper, he was seeing two doctors and taking medication to deal with nightmares, anxiety and sleeplessness,” the AP reported from Helena. “He said he has since worked through those issues with his family and his doctors, though he still takes antidepressant medication.”

This is notable because an unidentified aide told the Times that the senator did not seek treatment after his year in Iraq.

Walsh’s campaign now notes that “this paper coincided with the severe challenges he faced after returning from his deployment in Iraq.”

“He had persistent nightmares, deep anxiety and problems sleeping,” a backgrounder said. “The same month that this was due, a solider he led into combat in Iraq committed suicide.”

A spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee defended Walsh in a statement emailed to POLITICO, calling the allegations “smears.”

Walsh was appointed to the seat earlier this year after Democratic Sen. Max Baucus resigned to become U.S. ambassador to China. He is the Democratic nominee in the race for a full, six-year term this fall.