Failed Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore sues three women after allegations of unwanted sexual advances
Mr Moore is seeking compensatory damages and punitive damages
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Your support makes all the difference.Failed Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore is suing three women who he says were a part of a conspiracy to take down his candidacy.
Mr Moore — whose Senate candidacy was derailed after several women came forward with allegations that he made unwanted advances on them sexually while they were teenagers — filed suit Monday in a lawsuit that lists his wife, Kayla, as a co-filer.
“This was filed because the people of Alabama deserve to know the truth,” Melissa Isaak, an attorney representing Mr Moore, said. “The accusations made against Judge Moore during the US Senate campaign arose from a political conspiracy to destroy his personal reputation and defeat him in the special Senate election for United States Senate.”
The lawsuit lists three women who came forward with their accusations against Mr Moore — which he has denied — alongside two other individuals.
The lawsuit notes that Mr Moore had run for office several times before the 2017 special election in Alabama, and that he had not faced accusations like those he saw last year previously.
“Judge Moore has consistently espoused Biblical principles during his career in public life,” the court filing reads. “No hint of scandal has ever attended any of his contests for public office from the time he first ran for circuit judge in 1982 until his success in the two Senate primary elections in 2017, a period of 45 years.”
Ms Isaak said that the accusations came from just three women — Leigh Corfman, Beverly Nelson and Tina Johnson — and not from nine, which she says is how news media portrayed the scandal last year.
Ms Corfman sued Mr Moore in January for defamation, leading Mr Moore to counter-sue and request that a judge stop all proceedings.
Ms Corfman’s attorney, Neil Roman, told CNN in a statement that the new allegations from Mr Moore are without merit.
“Leigh Corfman stands by the accuracy of every one of her statements about Mr. Moore's sexual abuse of her when she was a 14-year-old high school freshman and he was a 32-year-old assistant district attorney,” the statement read. “Ms. Corfman is no longer a teenager and is not going let Mr. Moore victimize her again.”
Mr Moore said during a press conference that he does not have immediate plans to run for office, and that is not the reason for his lawsuit. The family’s attorney said that they have been “devastated” by the accusations. The lawsuit seeks compensation for damages, and also punitive damages.
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