Former Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore (R) is suing actor and director Sacha Baron Cohen, alleging that he defamed Moore and caused emotional stress to the former judge and his wife by tricking them into appearing on his Showtime program “Who is America?”
In a court filing Wednesday, Moore and his wife, Kayla Moore, allege that Cohen’s use of a disguise and false pretenses to lure them to Washington, D.C., for a supposed awards ceremony and interview constituted fraud.
{mosads}Cohen went on to “defame” Moore by using a device “supposedly invented by the Israeli Army to detect pedophiles” to label Moore as such on the program.
Moore lost the Senate election in December after several women alleged he had pursued romantic and sexual relationships with them when they were teenagers and Moore was in his 30s, including one who said she was underage at the time. Others accused Moore of sexual misconduct, including assault.
A release form signed by Moore for his appearance on the program, the complaint continues, was invalid due to the supposedly fraudulent conditions under which it was signed.
Moore’s lawyers argue that the judge’s family has “been the subject of widespread ridicule and humiliation” as a result of Cohen’s actions, which they say includes “severe emotional distress and pain and financial damage.”
“Who is America?” debuted earlier this year on Showtime, and many of the segments mocked Republicans and conservatives. Among the segments were interviews with prominent conservatives appearing to advocate for extreme gun safety positions, such as arming grade-school children and teaching kindergartners to disarm terrorists and active shooters.
The show ended its first highly anticipated season without airing an interview with 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, which Palin had admitted to giving and had called “bizarre, really embarrassing, [and] humiliating.”