An Alabama woman has accused Roy Moore, the state’s Republican Senate nominee, of forcing her into a sexual encounter in 1979, when she was 14 and he was 32, The Washington Post reported Thursday.
The woman, Leigh Corfman, now 53, told the Post that Moore took off her “shirt and pants and removed his clothes,” touched her “over her bra and underpants” and “guided her hand to touch him over his underwear.”
In a statement put out by his campaign, Moore, now 70, vehemently denied the allegations, calling them “a baseless political attack” and “the very definition of fake news and intentional defamation.”
“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,” Moore campaign chair Bill Armistead said in statement. “National liberal organizations know their chosen candidate Doug Jones is in a death spiral, and this is their last ditch Hail Mary.”
“The Washington Post has already endorsed the Judge’s opponent, and for months, they have engaged in a systematic campaign to distort the truth about the Judge’s record and career and derail his campaign. In fact, just two days ago, the Foundation for Moral Law sent a retraction demand to the Post for the false stories they wrote about the Judge’s work and compensation. But apparently, there is no end to what the Post will allege,” Armistead added. “After over 40 years of public service, if any of these allegations were true, they would have been made public long before now.”
The allegation comes just over a month before the Dec. 12 Alabama special election to fill the U.S. Senate seat that was vacated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Polls show Moore leading Democrat Doug Jones, a former U.S. attorney, by a comfortable margin.
Following the report’s publication, several Republican senators said Moore — a conservative firebrand who served twice as a chief justice of the state Supreme Court and has unsuccessfully run for governor twice — should drop out of the race if the allegations prove true.
“If these allegations are true, he must step aside,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told NBC News.
“The allegations against Roy Moore are deeply disturbing and disqualifying,” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said. “He should immediately step aside and allow the people of Alabama to elect a candidate they can be proud of.”
Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Co., who chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee, called the allegations “deeply troubling,” adding that if they “are found to be true, Roy Moore must drop out of the Alabama special Senate election.”
If Moore were to drop out, his name would remain on the ballot. Alabama law states that a general election candidate must withdraw 76 days before the date of the election to be removed from the ballot. If a candidate withdraws after that deadline, his or her name must remain on the ballot but no votes for the candidate can be certified. As of Thursday, the special election was only 33 days away.
There could, however, be some precedent for a court challenge. In 2002, an embattled Democratic Senate candidate in New Jersey dropped out of the race after the withdrawal deadline, and Democrats ultimately prevailed in a legal challenge to allow a replacement on the ballot anyway.
According to The Post, the relationship between Moore and Corfman began in 1979, when he approached her and her mother outside a courtroom in rural Alabama and offered to watch the teenage girl while her mother went into court for a hearing.
The Post interviewed both Corfman and her mother, Nancy Wells, as well as two of Corfman’s childhood friends, who said Corfman told them at the time that she had been dating an older man. One of Corfman’s friends identified the man as Moore.
Moore, then a district attorney in Etowah County, asked the girl for her phone number, and picked her up for a date days later, when he drove her to his house and kissed her.
The sexual encounter Corfman detailed to The Post occurred during second meeting between her and Moore.
“I wanted it over with — I wanted out,” Corfman told The Post. “Please just get this over with. Whatever this is, just get it over.”
Corfman said she told Moore his age at the time. The age of legal consent in Alabama is 16.
According to The Post, Alabama state law defines sexual abuse in the second degree as a person who is 19 or older having sexual contact with someone aged 12 to 16.
Corfman never filed a police report or a civil suit, the paper reported, and the statute of limitations for bringing charges would have expired three years after the alleged incident.
The Post also interviewed three other women who claim Moore “pursued” them when they were 16 to 18 and when he was in his early 30s.