Robert Herring Sr., founder of far-right One America News, has Alzheimer’s disease, his lawyers revealed this week.

And legal counsel for the 83-year-old CEO of Herring Networks seek to block his deposition in Dominion Voting’s multibillion-dollar defamation suit against him and his San Diego-based network.

On Wednesday, redacted letters about the dementia diagnosis were made public in a discovery fight being decided by Judge Moxila A. Upadhyaya in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

“The Herrings like so many families are dealing with the heartbreak of Alzheimer’s as they watch its progression against someone they love. One America News Network will continue as guided by the next generation without interruption.”

A source familiar with Herring said the company founder first displayed symptoms of dementia in 2018. Son Charles remains president of the business. He’s also targeted by the Dominion suit, along with correspondent Chanel Rion and former anchor Christina Bobb.

Herring lawyer Charles “Chip” Babcock wrote Upadhyaya on Sept. 16, saying that a federal court rule “authorizes you to forbid the deposition of a party–defendant where, as here, the witness has a ‘medical condition and diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.’”

Babcock cited a declaration by Herring son Bobby Herring Jr. and the “findings and opinions” of three medical experts, “all of whom have reviewed Mr. Herring’s medical records and examined him.”

“This clear and unrebutted evidence demonstrates that Mr. Herring Sr. should be protected from the deposition process and is incompetent to testify. … In the District of Columbia, ‘[I]n assessing the competency of a witness, a trial judge must evaluate the ability to accurately perceive, recall and relate purported facts, as well as testify truthfully.’”

In a Sept. 19 letter, Babcock added: “The harm Mr. Herring will face if required to testify is real. A deposition would also harm Mr. Herring.”

Dominion Voting lawyer Jonathan J. Ross thought otherwise.

“Crucially, none of the doctors OAN has retained to evaluate Mr. Herring have suggested that he will be placed at risk of harm by testifying at his deposition, the exact issue that the governing law requires to prohibit a properly noticed deposition,” Ross said in a Sept. 20 letter to Judge Upadhyaya.

Ross — who helped represent Dominion in its $787 millions settlement with Fox News — wrote that OAN is “wrong on the facts and the law. Factually, even the doctors OAN has retained disagree as to the severity of Mr. Herring’s condition.”

Houston-based Ross called Herring a witness “with unique and important information relevant to the cases against himself and his company; OAN does not contest this. Discovery to date has confirmed Mr. Herring’s close involvement with the conduct for which Dominion sued him and his network.”

Attorney David Garten of West Palm Beach, Florida, is expert in probate litigation, including depositions of people with Alzheimer’s.

In a phone interview Thursday, Garten told me that claiming dementia can be a delaying tactic.

“It’s always done,” he said. “I mean, that’s common.”

While not commenting on the Herring case, he said his Florida experience suggests attorneys get doctors to write a court letters contending a client has dementia.

“So [doctors] write these letters and … don’t realize the implications of that letter,” Garten said.

The doctors themselves might be deposed, he said.

Hearings on dementia claims may happen in Florida, but it isn’t clear whether Upadhyaya would hold one — or just decide in the basis of letters and written testimony.

Upadhyaya is handling discovery issues for Judge Carl Nichols, who is overseeing the case filed in August 2021 by election technology company Dominion Voting Systems.

“OAN manufactured, endorsed, repeated and broadcast a series of verifiably false yet devastating lies about Dominion,” its lawsuit said. “OAN helped create and cultivate an alternate reality where up is down, pigs have wings, and Dominion engaged in a colossal fraud to steal the presidency from Donald Trump by rigging the vote.”