MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Former U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore is pleading for money to pay for his legal bills as he fights a lawsuit against a woman who says he molested her when she was 14. Moore said on a campaign Facebook page Thursday that his “resources have been depleted.” The link indicated that Moore had raised just $32,000 of a $250,000 fundraising goal.
Leigh Corfman has accused Moore of touching her when she was 14 and he was in his 30s. She is suing Moore, saying Moore and his campaign defamed her as he denied the allegations.
“I now face another vicious attack from lawyers in Washington D. C. and San Francisco who have hired one of the biggest firms in Birmingham Alabama to bring another legal action against me and ensure that I never fight again,” Moore wrote on Facebook. “I have lawyers who want to help but they are not without cost and besides their fees, legal expenses could run over $100,000. I have had to establish a legal defense fund, anything you give will be appreciated.”
Moore blamed the “liberal media, in association with some who want to destroy our Country do not want my influence in the 2018 elections and are doing everything they can to stop me.”
“The political Left is filled with men and women whose sole aim in life is to overthrow our God-ordained rights which are guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution,” Moore wrote. “It is your responsibility and mine to stand up to this vile encroachment on our rights, and defend that for which the Founding Fathers sacrificed so greatly. Please send a generous gift today to the Roy Moore Legal Defense Fund to help me defeat, once and for all, those who would destroy America in order to usher in their anti-Christian ‘kingdom.'”
Moore has sent multiple emails to supporters seeking donations to the fund since losing the 2017 election to Sen. Doug Jones. In December, Moore sent several fundraising emails to supporters asking for donations to investigate claims of voter fraud.
Jones, a Democrat, pulled out a surprise victory in the special election for what had been Jeff Sessions’ Senate seat. Sessions left the Senate to become President Trump’s attorney general.
But a strange series of events led to a Democrat being a elected in one of the deepest red states in the country. Former Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley appointed state Attorney General Luther Strange to the seat, although Strange had been investigating Bentley and his office, and set Dec. 12 as the date for the special election. Facing impeachment and a sex scandal, Bentley resigned in April. Both Strange and Bentley have denied any wrongdoing.
Moore, who as a judge had twice been removed from the bench, won the Republican primary in Sept., partially by tying Strange to corruption in Washington and Montgomery specifically. Although Moore was considered the favorite to win the Dec. election, accusations surfaced in Nov. of sexual misconduct by several women, including allegedly initiating sexual encounters with teens as young as 14. Moore denied the allegations, but many Republicans called for him to step aside and the Republican National Committee pulled its financial support. Eventually, the RNC resumed its support and Mr. Trump even recorded a robocall.
Even before the sexual misconduct allegations, the race had attracted national attention — and outside money, especially from national Democrats. Although Democrats suffered a number of losses in special elections in 2017, the national party was energized after winning the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial elections. New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and civil rights icon U.S. Rep. John Lewis campaigned for Jones, and former President Obama even recorded a robocall.
From Oct. 1 through Nov. 22, Jones raised $10,101,243, compared to Moore’s $1,767,365, according to federal election filings that came out before the election. Jones outspent Moore 10 to 1 and campaign says supporters knocked on 300,000 doors and made more than one million calls.
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