Tim Sheehy, Who Admits To Lying About Receiving A Gunshot Wound In Combat, Wins Montana GOP Senate Nomination

On Tuesday night, Tim Sheehy won the Montana Republican Senate nomination despite having earlier admitted that he had lied about receiving a bullet to the arm in combat.

Sheehy, who will face off against Sen. Jon Tester (R-Montana), told The Washington Post that he lied to a National Park Service ranger about shooting himself in the arm on October 18, 2015, arguing that the only crime he is guilty of is “admitting to doing something” he never did.

He stated he lied to the ranger about unlawfully discharging a firearm to protect his former platoon members from an investigation into the gunshot wound he alleges happened in Afghanistan during April or May 2012, not in Montana’s Glacier National Park.

Sheehy said that he is not sure if the wound came from hostile or friendly fire. 

Despite this, one of the surgeons whom the publication talked with regarding an X-ray that the Sheehy campaign offered said he was “doubtful” the gunshot wound was from a military-level assault rifle and that it more likely had been shot from a handgun.

The Montana GOP Senate candidate was given both a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart over different incidents in Afghanistan, and, according to the report, neither episode involved friendly fire. 

Sheehy asserted that he did not fire a weapon in the park, telling the paper that he fell on a bike and injured himself so severely that he had to go to an emergency room in Kalispell, Montana. He told a park ranger that he had a bullet wound in his arm.

In his 2023 memoir Mudslingers: A True Story of Aerial Firefighting, published on December 12, 2023, he wrote in one passage about being shot many times in Afghanistan, but in another, he described being hit by a bullet once. 

In the ranger’s written description of the 2015 incident, Sheehy recounted being shot by his Colt .45 revolver in the Logan Pass parking lot after it had tumbled down a pile of gear before it hit the ground and fired into his arm.

In his description of events to the paper, he stated that he fell on his arm after slipping on some ice.

“You know, hurt my arm. You know, there is a gunshot wound in there… I just need to take a look at it and make sure everything’s Ok,” he told hospital workers. 

He was required to pay a $525 fine for unlawfully firing his weapon in the park.

Sometime after speaking with the publication, it was revealed that Sheehy apologized and asked for leniency in 2015 after he stated that the gun he kept in his vehicle for bear protection fell and discharged, according to National Park Service documents, which were recently released via a Freedom of Information Act request.

The documents, which provide more detail about the incident in Glacier National Park, contain a detailed written statement from the candidate to a law enforcement officer regarding him accidentally shooting himself in 2015.

“As a highly trained and combat experienced wounded veteran, I can assure you this was an unfortunate accident and we are grateful no other persons or property were damaged,” Sheehy mentioned in the statement. “Due to my ongoing security clearance and involvement with national defense related contracts, I request leniency with any charges related to this unfortunate accident.”

A National Park Service summary of this incident, which had also been included in the recently released documents, mentions that an unidentified park visitor reported an accidental gun discharge in Logan Pass. 

This differs from Sheehy’s current account, in which he mentioned that law enforcement was initially contacted by personnel at a hospital that treated him for his wounds. The summary does not identify the park visitor who reported the gun discharge.

Sheehy said in his 2015 statement that a weapon kept in the vehicle for bear protection had been inadequately placed and fell out when he had been reloading his SUV. 

“My deepest apologies for any inconvenience this incident caused,” the candidate also said in the statement.

Sheehy was slammed by Vote Vets, a progressive veterans group, in early April.

“It’s time he releases his military records and medical records to put this issue to bed,” the group’s chairman, Jon Soltz, stated. “Montanans might not be able to trust Sheehy, but they can trust our military and medical professionals for the truth.”