Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Senate hopeful’s campaign digs in
Moore attorney questions credibility of sex-assault accuser
GADSDEN, Ala. — The campaign of Roy Moore, the Republican Senate nominee in Alabama, on Wednesday sharply questioned the credibility of a woman who accused Moore of assaulting her in 1977.
At a news conference outside the Hoover, Ala., headquarters of the state Republican Party, a lawyer for Moore’s campaign, Phillip Jauregui, suggested that Beverly Young Nelson had lied when she said she had no contact with Moore after the alleged assault.
He suggested that a purported message from Moore to Nelson in a yearbook may have been a forgery, and he demanded that Nelson and her lawyer, Gloria Allred, allow the yearbook to be studied.
“Release the yearbook,” he said.
Nelson on Monday alleged sexual advances or misconduct from Moore — the GOP’s pick for next month’s special election for the Senate seat vacated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions and currently held by Luther Strange.
“I tried fighting him off while yelling at him to stop, but instead of stopping, he began squeezing my neck, attempting to force my head onto his crotch,” Nelson said at a news conference in New York. She said the assault happened after she finished an evening of work at the northeast Alabama restaurant where she was a server.
Nelson and Leigh Corfman, who was the first to accuse Moore of sexual misconduct, have said Moore molested them in the 1970s when Corfman was 14, Nelson was 16 and Moore was a deputy district attorney in Gadsden in his 30s. Three other women said he pursued romantic relationships with them around the same time.
Moore faced another sexual allegation Wednesday. Tina Johnson told AL.com that Moore flirted with her during a 1991 meeting in his law office and afterward grabbed her buttock.
“He didn’t pinch it; he grabbed it,” Johnson told the Alabama outlet.
President Donald Trump kept out of the dispute Wednesday as national Republicans called even more insistently for Moore to abandon his campaign and as party officials debated their options.
Trump, who withstood allegations of sexual assault weeks before his own election, ducked questions about the Alabama race and whether he would join GOP congressional leaders in urging Moore to step aside.
Even as Moore’s would-be colleagues threatened to expel him should he win and the Republican National Committee and National Republican Senatorial Committee pulled their support, Trump was seen as the best hope for pushing a fellow political rebel from the race.
Instead, Moore, who was twice removed from his post as state Supreme Court chief justice, confronted his party with two damaging potential election outcomes. His victory would saddle GOP senators with a colleague accused of abusing and harassing teenagers, a liability heading into next year’s congressional elections, while a loss to Democrat Doug Jones would slice the already narrow GOP Senate majority to a 51-49.
It’s too late to remove Moore’s name from the ballot, and fielding a Republican write-in candidate at this point could hand the election to the Democrats unless he withdraws and persuades his supporters to vote for that substitute.
Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby said in Washington that he’ll write in another name on his ballot and that Attorney General Jeff Sessions would be an “ideal candidate.” But he also said that “I don’t see any movement” toward an effective effort with the election less than a month away.
Alabama Republican Party officials convened by phone late Wednesday to discuss the situation. The 21-member party steering committee could vote to revoke Moore’s GOP nomination and ask election officials to ignore ballots cast for him, but that would risk a lawsuit and backlash from Moore supporters.
The party has little interest in alienating Moore’s supporters a year before elections in which the governor’s office and entire state Legislature will be in play.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Trump had been involved in dealing with the Moore situation “in great detail” during his Asia trip. McConnell said he had spoken about Moore to the president, Vice President Mike Pence and White House chief of staff John Kelly.
“He’s obviously not fit to be in the United States Senate, and we’ve looked at all the options to try to prevent that from happening,” said McConnell, who has encouraged Sessions to mount a write-in campaign.
Sessions is said to have told friends that he has no interest in that.
Fox News Channel host Sean Hannity joined Moore’s GOP critics during his show Tuesday evening, saying he was giving Moore 24 hours to explain “inconsistencies” in his response to allegations of child molestation or else exit the Alabama race.
Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter, weighed in Wednesday, saying: “There’s a special place in hell for people who prey on children. I’ve yet to see a valid explanation and I have no reason to doubt the victims’ accounts.” She did not call for Moore to exit the race.
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said the women accusing Moore of sexual misconduct appear to be believable, and he cast doubt on the Alabama candidate’s responses to the claims.
“Roy Moore faces specific, credible allegations and he hasn’t offered a specific, credible defense. I haven’t supported him, I don’t support him, and I can’t urge Alabama voters to support him,” the Republican from Dardanelle said Wednesday through a spokesman.
Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., said earlier this week that he believes that Moore should withdraw from the race.