Roy Moore has filed a $95 million lawsuit against comedian Sacha Baron Cohen after the failed Republican U.S. Senate candidate appeared on an episode of Showtime’s “Who Is America?” series. Moore, whose wife joined in the lawsuit, is claiming defamation, fraud, emotional distress, and financial damage as the result of Baron Cohen’s use of a “pedophile detector” that “beeped” when he waved it near Moore during a comedic sketch.
The lawsuit claims Moore “suffered extreme emotional distress” as a result of “being falsely portrayed as a sex offender and pedophile” during the show, The Guardian reports. Showtime and CBS are also named as defendants.
Last year Moore was credibly accused of inappropriate sexual behavior with teen girls as young as 14 when he was in his 30’s.
Here’s a clip of the episode:
Far right wing attorney Larry Klayman, also a failed U.S. Senate candidate and a birther, is representing the Moores.
Klayman’s “critics see him as a racist, a frivolous litigator and a conspiracy theorist,” The Hill wrote last year.
“Klayman is like an anarchist flagpole sitter with a law degree, inclined toward the grand gesture and the bald overstatement,” The Washington Post wrote of Klayman in 2014. “He called on President Obama to ‘put down the Koran … and come out with your hands up.’ His briefs are manifestos. He sues entire countries.”
Conservative commentator Michael Smerconish warns Moore, “Are you sure Judge Moore? When you’re deposed under oath by trial lawyer it’ll be a little different than sitting for Hannity’s softballs.”