Four women say Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore pursued relationships with them when they were teens
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/women-roy-moore-pursued-teens-article-1.3621984
Four women reportedly charged that Alabama GOP Senate nominee Roy Moore pursued inappropriate relationships with them decades ago when they were teenagers — leading to calls for him to drop out of the race.
Moore, now 70, is the state’s former chief justice who was twice removed from his duties for defying federal courts over same-sex marriage and the public display of the ten commandments.
One woman told the Washington Post that she was just 14 when Moore, then a 32-year-old assistant district attorney, initiated a sexual relationship in 1979.
Leigh Corfman, now 53, told the newspaper that Moore took her to his house, gave her alcohol and the two kissed. During a second encounter, he took off her clothes, touched her over her bra and panties and guided her hand to touch him over his underwear, she said.
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“I wanted it over with — I wanted out,” she told The Post.
Corfman said she was with her mother at a custody hearing when Moore first approached her and asked for her phone number.
Three other women say that Moore pursued them when they were between the ages of 16 and 18.
Wendy Miller said she was 14 and working as a Santa’s helper at a mall in Gadsden when Moore first approached her. Two years later, he began asking her out on dates, she said.
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The legal age of consent in Alabama is 16.
None say that the jurist physically forced them into any sexual contact.
Corfman said she felt like it was the right time to speak out about Moore after being approached by the Washington Post about rumors of Moore’s dalliances.
“I have prayed over this,” she said. “All I know is that I can’t sit back and let this continue, let him continue without the mask being removed.”
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Moore called the report “garbage.”
“These allegations are completely false and are a desperate political attack by the National Democrat Party and the Washington Post on this campaign,” he said in a statement. “This garbage is the very definition of fake news.”
Moore beat out Republican establishment-backed Sen. Luther Strange in the GOP primary in September to fill the seat vacated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The race included personal appearances from President Trump, in support of Strange, and former White House strategist Stephen Bannon, backing Moore.
Moore has called for homosexuality to be illegal, fueled the conspiracy theory behind former President Barack Obama’s birthplace, and recently commented on racial divisions by mentioning “reds and yellows” in an apparent reference to Native-Americans and Asians.
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On Wednesday, he reportedly said “transgenders don’t have rights.”
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Alabama GOP Senate nominee Roy Moore is being accused of pursuing inappropriate relationships with women when they were teenagers. (SCOTT OLSON/GETTY IMAGES)
He is facing Democrat Doug Jones in a Dec. 12 special election.
Moore used the Post report to send out a fundraising appeal for help fighting “the forces of evil waging an all-out war on our conservative values,” while his backers in the Bible Belt brushed off the accusations.
“There is nothing to see here,” Alabama State Auditor Jim Ziegler told the Washington Examiner.
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“Also take Joseph and Mary. Mary was a teenager and Joseph was an adult carpenter. They became parents of Jesus.”
An article by right wing news site Breitbart attempted to preemptively defend the accusations against Moore by casting his actions as “romantic.”
But a cross-section of Republicans called on Moore to end his campaign “if the allegations are true.”
Vice-President Pence “found the allegations in the story disturbing and believes, if true, this would disqualify anyone from serving in office,” his spokesman said in a statement.
“If these allegations are true, he must step aside,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters.
Sen. John McCain (R-Az.) was more straightforward.
“The allegations against Roy Moore are deeply disturbing and disqualifying. He should immediately step aside and allow the people of Alabama to elect a candidate they can be proud of,” he tweeted.
Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said she was “horrified” to hear of the accusations and called on Moore to end his bid for office.
Even Sen. John Cornyn, who endorsed Moore, said that he “finds it deeply disturbing and troubling,” adding that “it’s up the governor and the folks in Alabama to make that decision as far as what the next steps.”
A defiant Moore campaign vowed to carry on, issuing another statement after the story ran online.
“Judge Roy Moore has endured the most outlandish attacks on any candidate in the modern political arena, but this story in today’s Washington Post alleging sexual impropriety takes the cake,” reads the statement, noting that Moore has been married to the same woman for 33 years and has four children and five grandchildren.
Even if he were to exit the race, Moore’s name would still appear on the ballot, a spokesman for the Alabama secretary of state told the Associated Press.