Facts are brutal.
1. The accusers. Moore portrayed his first four accusers as pawns of the Washington Post, which reported their allegations. Since then, five more women have come forward, mostly speaking to outlets other than the Post. With one exception, the nine women donât know one another. Theyâve given their names and answered hard questions, in some cases on live TV, while Moore has stiff-armed reporters. Each woman has told only her own story, but there are hints that theyâre just the tip of the iceberg. One recalls Moore telling her, âI go out with girls your age all the time.â Two of the women say they supported Trump. Another says sheâs a Republican. A fourth calls herself a devout Christian. Yet Moore and his allies continue to dismiss all the allegations as a liberal plot.
2. Supporting witnesses. One accuser, Leigh Corfman, says Moore seduced her when she was 14. Moore says he never met her, but Corfmanâs mother says she was present when the two met. Another accuser, Wendy Miller, says Moore flirted with her when she was 14 and asked her out at 16. Her mother, too, confirms the story, saying she told Moore he was too old to date her daughter. Kayla McLaughlin, who worked at a mall store with a third accuser, Gena Richardson, says she saw Moore pursue Richardson. Two other accusers, Beverly Nelson and Tina Johnson, told their sisters about Moore years ago. The idea that all these girls, their mothers, their sisters, and their friends began coordinating a massive lie decades agoâand somehow conspired to keep it quiet through Mooreâs many previous political campaigns, saving it for a special Senate election in 2017âis completely preposterous. And thatâs before we get to the many other people in Mooreâs town, including a colleague in the district attorneyâs office, who have broadly described, in some cases firsthand, how Moore fished for teenagers.
3. Documents. A February 1979 court order supports Corfmanâs contention that she was down the hall from Mooreâs office on the day she says they met. Mooreâs campaign says Corfmanâs story about where Moore picked her up for dates canât be true because she didnât live where she claims to have lived. But an old police report confirms that she did. (When the Post asked the Moore campaign to document its counterclaim that Corfman lived a mile away, the campaign replied: âWe will not respond to anyone from the Post.â) Another court record shows that Johnson was a client of Moore in 1991, when she says he groped her.
Mooreâs campaign has attacked Nelsonâs story that he assaulted her 40 years ago outside a restaurant. The campaign has questioned whether the restaurant existed there at the time, and Mooreâs wife has promoted claims that it didnât. A 1978 city directory confirms that it did. Moore has also denied allegations by Corfman and another woman, Gloria Deason, that he gave them alcohol when they were underage. Moore says he couldnât have done that, because the county didnât permit alcohol sales at the time. This, too, is false: The county had legalized alcohol sales several years earlier, and the restaurant where Deason says Moore ordered bottles of Rose confirms that it served booze.
4. The yearbook. Moore says he never met Nelson. That leaves him to explain why she has a 1977 high-school yearbook bearing the inscription: âTo a sweeter more beautiful girl, I could not say âMerry Christmas.â Christmas, 1977, Love, Roy Moore.â Moore points out that Nelson, too, has something to explain: Why, he asks, are the exact date and place where he ostensibly signed the yearbook written below his name âin a style inconsistent with the rest of the yearbook inscriptionâ? Thatâs a good question. Itâs possible that somebody else appended those details. But whatâs striking is that Moore doesnât challenge the inscription itself. He canât dispute that it bears an uncanny resemblance to his handwriting on other documents. An expert consulted by the Post observes that the script flows without interruption, which would be hard for a forger to do.
At a Nov. 15 press conference, Phillip Jauregui, an attorney for Moore, questioned whether âeverything written in that yearbook was written by Roy Moore.â That sounds like an implicit acknowledgment that part of it was. (Nelsonâs attorney, Gloria Allred, says sheâll hand over the yearbook if Moore agrees to testify, along with Nelson, under oath. Moore hasnât accepted the challenge.) Itâs also curious that Mooreâs campaign, which has dug up old documents bearing his signature, has yet to produce any that donât match Nelsonâs inscription. And the yearbook itself nails down that the inscription was written in late 1977, when Moore was 30 and Nelson had just turned 16. So even if you discount the appended text, weâre left with Mooreâs note to a âbeautiful girlâ half his age, whom he claims he never knew.
5. Confessions. Moore says he first noticed Kayla Kisor, the girl who would become his wife, when she performed at a dance recital at age 15 or 16. That would be around 1977, the same year that three of his accusers, who were roughly the same age as Kisor, say he pursued them. In fact, Nelson was in Kisorâs high-school class. And though Moore told Hannity he did ânot generallyâ date teenagers while in his 30s, he also denied âdating any girl without the permission of her mother,â which suggests that the girls were young. That fits the story told by Wendy Millerâs mother, who says she rejected Mooreâs request to date her 16-year-old daughter.
Moore has tried to poke holes in his accusersâ stories. His campaign offers statements from women who say he never groped them, waitresses who say they never saw him, and security officers who say he was never formally banned from the local mall for making girls uncomfortable. None of this refutes the allegations. The Moore campaign says Corfman contradicted her mother over whether she had a phone in her room. Nope: Both women say the phone, attached to a cord in the hallway, could be used inside or outside the room. The campaign also says Nelson couldnât have worked at a restaurant at 15, as she claims, because âyou had to be 16â to work there. (I laughed when I read that. When I was 15, I got a job at Wendyâs by telling them I was 16. Lots of teens did the same.)
The Sham Defense of Roy Moore
1. The accusers. Moore portrayed his first four accusers as pawns of the Washington Post, which reported their allegations. Since then, five more women have come forward, mostly speaking to outlets other than the Post. With one exception, the nine women donât know one another. Theyâve given their names and answered hard questions, in some cases on live TV, while Moore has stiff-armed reporters. Each woman has told only her own story, but there are hints that theyâre just the tip of the iceberg. One recalls Moore telling her, âI go out with girls your age all the time.â Two of the women say they supported Trump. Another says sheâs a Republican. A fourth calls herself a devout Christian. Yet Moore and his allies continue to dismiss all the allegations as a liberal plot.
2. Supporting witnesses. One accuser, Leigh Corfman, says Moore seduced her when she was 14. Moore says he never met her, but Corfmanâs mother says she was present when the two met. Another accuser, Wendy Miller, says Moore flirted with her when she was 14 and asked her out at 16. Her mother, too, confirms the story, saying she told Moore he was too old to date her daughter. Kayla McLaughlin, who worked at a mall store with a third accuser, Gena Richardson, says she saw Moore pursue Richardson. Two other accusers, Beverly Nelson and Tina Johnson, told their sisters about Moore years ago. The idea that all these girls, their mothers, their sisters, and their friends began coordinating a massive lie decades agoâand somehow conspired to keep it quiet through Mooreâs many previous political campaigns, saving it for a special Senate election in 2017âis completely preposterous. And thatâs before we get to the many other people in Mooreâs town, including a colleague in the district attorneyâs office, who have broadly described, in some cases firsthand, how Moore fished for teenagers.
3. Documents. A February 1979 court order supports Corfmanâs contention that she was down the hall from Mooreâs office on the day she says they met. Mooreâs campaign says Corfmanâs story about where Moore picked her up for dates canât be true because she didnât live where she claims to have lived. But an old police report confirms that she did. (When the Post asked the Moore campaign to document its counterclaim that Corfman lived a mile away, the campaign replied: âWe will not respond to anyone from the Post.â) Another court record shows that Johnson was a client of Moore in 1991, when she says he groped her.
Mooreâs campaign has attacked Nelsonâs story that he assaulted her 40 years ago outside a restaurant. The campaign has questioned whether the restaurant existed there at the time, and Mooreâs wife has promoted claims that it didnât. A 1978 city directory confirms that it did. Moore has also denied allegations by Corfman and another woman, Gloria Deason, that he gave them alcohol when they were underage. Moore says he couldnât have done that, because the county didnât permit alcohol sales at the time. This, too, is false: The county had legalized alcohol sales several years earlier, and the restaurant where Deason says Moore ordered bottles of Rose confirms that it served booze.
4. The yearbook. Moore says he never met Nelson. That leaves him to explain why she has a 1977 high-school yearbook bearing the inscription: âTo a sweeter more beautiful girl, I could not say âMerry Christmas.â Christmas, 1977, Love, Roy Moore.â Moore points out that Nelson, too, has something to explain: Why, he asks, are the exact date and place where he ostensibly signed the yearbook written below his name âin a style inconsistent with the rest of the yearbook inscriptionâ? Thatâs a good question. Itâs possible that somebody else appended those details. But whatâs striking is that Moore doesnât challenge the inscription itself. He canât dispute that it bears an uncanny resemblance to his handwriting on other documents. An expert consulted by the Post observes that the script flows without interruption, which would be hard for a forger to do.
At a Nov. 15 press conference, Phillip Jauregui, an attorney for Moore, questioned whether âeverything written in that yearbook was written by Roy Moore.â That sounds like an implicit acknowledgment that part of it was. (Nelsonâs attorney, Gloria Allred, says sheâll hand over the yearbook if Moore agrees to testify, along with Nelson, under oath. Moore hasnât accepted the challenge.) Itâs also curious that Mooreâs campaign, which has dug up old documents bearing his signature, has yet to produce any that donât match Nelsonâs inscription. And the yearbook itself nails down that the inscription was written in late 1977, when Moore was 30 and Nelson had just turned 16. So even if you discount the appended text, weâre left with Mooreâs note to a âbeautiful girlâ half his age, whom he claims he never knew.
5. Confessions. Moore says he first noticed Kayla Kisor, the girl who would become his wife, when she performed at a dance recital at age 15 or 16. That would be around 1977, the same year that three of his accusers, who were roughly the same age as Kisor, say he pursued them. In fact, Nelson was in Kisorâs high-school class. And though Moore told Hannity he did ânot generallyâ date teenagers while in his 30s, he also denied âdating any girl without the permission of her mother,â which suggests that the girls were young. That fits the story told by Wendy Millerâs mother, who says she rejected Mooreâs request to date her 16-year-old daughter.
Moore has tried to poke holes in his accusersâ stories. His campaign offers statements from women who say he never groped them, waitresses who say they never saw him, and security officers who say he was never formally banned from the local mall for making girls uncomfortable. None of this refutes the allegations. The Moore campaign says Corfman contradicted her mother over whether she had a phone in her room. Nope: Both women say the phone, attached to a cord in the hallway, could be used inside or outside the room. The campaign also says Nelson couldnât have worked at a restaurant at 15, as she claims, because âyou had to be 16â to work there. (I laughed when I read that. When I was 15, I got a job at Wendyâs by telling them I was 16. Lots of teens did the same.)
The Sham Defense of Roy Moore
