Former US Senate Candidate Roy Moore Sues Sacha Baron Cohen For Libel

Former Republican Senate candidate and accused child molester Roy Moore is suing British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen for defamation after being pranked on his new show “Who Is America?”

The ultra-conservative former judge from Alabama is seeking $95 million in damages from the satirist and from the Showtime and CBS networks, which broadcast an episode featuring him on July 29, according to a copy of the complaint which was filed in a federal court in Washington.

Moore said he was duped into coming to the capital in February under false pretences, to appear on what he thought was an Israeli television station that wanted to give him an award for his pro-Israel stances.

He was interviewed by a person he believed to be an Israeli anti-terrorism expert, Colonel Erran Morad, but who was in reality Cohen.

“Defendant Cohen’s character falsely and fraudulently introduced a false and fraudulent ‘device’ supposedly invented by the Israeli Army to detect paedophiles,” the complaint said.

“During the segment, Defendant Cohen’s ‘device’ — as part of the false and fraudulent routine — purports to detect Judge Moore as a sex offender, thus defaming him.”

During Moore’s Senate run last year, several women came forward to accuse Moore of having sexually assaulted or harassed them when he was a state attorney in his thirties and they were in their teens.

Despite an endorsement from President Donald Trump, Moore lost his race to a relatively unknown Democrat, Doug Jones.

Moore said he, his wife and their entire family had suffered “severe emotional distress and pain” as a result of the defamatory statements, “especially given his status as a prominent conservative and God fearing person of faith.”

AFP