Roy Moore blasted by woman's lawyer: 'He knows full well' why the women kept quiet

ByMAIA DAVIS ABCNews logo
Saturday, November 11, 2017

Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore on Saturday again adamantly denied sexual misconduct allegations and promised that "revelations about the motivations" behind the news report of his alleged behavior will come out in a few days.

His Democratic opponent, Doug Jones, meanwhile said Moore needs "to answer to the people of Alabama" about the "very serious allegations."

And the lawyer for a woman who says Moore dated her when she was 18 and he was in his 30s and supplied her with alcohol before she was of legal drinking age responded later Saturday to the candidate's comments. Paula Cobia, lawyer for Gloria Deason, blasted Moore for making what she called "defamatory statements" about "4 brave women."

"He knows full well why these women did not tell what he did to them before this week," Cobia wrote in a statement posted on Facebook on Saturday. "As young teenage girls in the late 1970s in a small, rural southern town, they had no way of knowing their rights, especially against him considering that he was a district attorney at the time."

Cobia was reacting to Moore's speech at a Veterans Day event in the Birmingham area, where he questioned why allegations about his behavior 40 years ago are coming out at this time. The Republican former judge slammed the claims as politically motivated "fake news."

"Why now?" Moore said. "For 40 years I have been closely scrutinized in the press and the public media."

The answer, he suggested, is that "Democrats and the Republican establishment know the importance of this election. In fact, most people in America know the importance of this election. They see it as a prelude of the elections coming in 2018. It may very well determine the future of our country."

Moore, who is running to fill the Alabama seat vacated by Jeff Sessions when he became attorney general, faces allegations first reported by the Washington Post that he engaged in sexual activity with a 14-year-old when he was 32 and pursued other girls, including Gloria Deason, when they were between the ages of 16 and 18 and he was in his 30s.

He said Saturday that "revelations" will be coming out on the motivations behind the article.

"In the next few days, there will be revelations about the motivations and the content of this article," Moore said. "They will be brought to the public. We fully expect the people of Alabama to see through this charade."

The Senate candidate received a standing ovation from the crowd.

The lawyer for Deason in her statement on Facebook countered that the women who told their stories to the Washington Post did not seek the media attention.

"Why did the women speak out now? Because someone (The Post reporters) finally showed up at their doors and asked them to tell what he did to them," Cobia wrote.

Moore's Democratic rival, Jones, on Saturday told ABC News affiliate in Birmingham, WBMA-TV, that the claims against Moore are "very serious allegations. I think he does need to do more than just simply deny them."

Asked if he had anything to do with the allegations against Moore coming to light, Jones said, "Absolutely not. That's just another in a continuing pattern of absurd statements that Moore and his campaign made .... It's just absurd."

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