Top Washington Post editor: Roy Moore campaign is lying about us

The Washington Post’s top editor is accusing Roy Moore’s campaign of lying about the newspaper’s journalistic practices and political motivations in the wake of its reporting on sexual misconduct allegations against the Republican Alabama Senate candidate.

Executive editor Marty Baron said in an article published late Wednesday on the newspaper’s website that the newspaper’s reporting on the allegations has been met by “deceit, deception and dirty tricks.”

“The response to our meticulously reported story about Roy Moore has been a stunning level of deceit, deception and dirty tricks,” Baron said.

{mosads}“The Moore campaign and others have lied about our motives and lied about our methods. And at least one individual — we’re still not sure who — has also pretended to be a Post journalist so as to falsely portray our journalistic practices,” Baron added.

Reports surfaced earlier this week that at least one person in Alabama received a voicemail from someone claiming to be a The Washington Post reporter named “Bernie Bernstein” who offered to pay women to make damaging claims about Moore. Later in the message the caller refers to himself as “Al Bernstein.”

There is no reporter at The Washington Post named Bernie Bernstein or Al Bernstein, and an email address given in the voicemail returns messages as undeliverable.

It is not clear who was behind the call, though a spokesman for Moore’s campaign told WKRG in Mobile, Ala. that he was not aware of such a call.

Moore and his campaign have escalated a feud with the press in recent days, after reports emerged that the former Alabama Supreme Court justice pursued sexual and romantic relations with teenage girls decades ago when he was in his 30s. 

The first such allegations were reported by The Washington Post last week, and more women have come forward since then.

Moore has vehemently denied some of the allegations, though has not ruled out the possibility that he may have dated teenage girls when he was in his early 30s, telling Sean Hannity on his radio program last week that he did not remember.

Moore is facing mounting calls from GOP lawmakers and officials to step aside in Alabama’s Senate race. He has so far declined to do so, calling the allegations politically motivated and false.