Roy Moore during his unsuccessful campaign for U.S. Senate.
An Alabama woman who claims failed Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore molested her is now suing him for defamation. In November, Leigh Corfman told the Washington Post that Moore touched her sexually when she was 14. Moore has denied it, but Corfman says he’s gone far beyond denials and into attacks.
The lawsuit filed in Montgomery County on Thursday claims Moore and his campaign defamed Leigh Corfman “repeatedly and in all forms of media, calling her a liar and questioning her motivation” for saying Moore sexually abused her in 1979.
During the campaign, Moore and his surrogates called sexual misconduct allegations politically motivated, false, and malicious. He repeated the claim in an unsuccessful December 27 court filing to stop certification of the election he lost last month.
“Mr. Moore’s statements about Ms. Corfman, including those in his affidavit made under penalty of perjury, are false and defamatory,” Corfman’s suit says. “Mr. Moore made these statements knowing that they are false.”
Corfman wants Moore to stop calling her a liar, retract those statements and publicly apologize, and pay her legal costs. The suit also asks the court to provide “further relief as permitted by law.”
A Moore spokesman said late Thursday, “We look forward to transparently discussing these matters in a court of law.”
