Failed Alabama US Senate candidate Roy Moore’s defamation lawsuit against comedian Sasha Baron Cohen and cable network Showtime, in which Moore says he was duped into appearing on Baron Cohen’s comedy show and inspected with a “pedophile detecting machine,” is coming to New York.
Moore — who, during his failed Senate bid against Democrat Doug Jones in a special election, was accused of sexually assaulting and harassing several women decades ago — wanted to keep the defamation case against the “Borat” star in federal court in Washington, DC, because that’s where his interview with the comedian was taped.
Moore’s lawyers also argued in court filings that Baron Cohen and the other named defendants in the case, Showtime and its parent company, CBS, wanted to move the case to New York because they would be more likely to find a “left-leaning” judge there.
But lawyers for Baron Cohen — who pretended to be an anti-terrorism expert from the Israeli Mossad during his mock interview with Moore for his show “Who Is America?” — pushed for the case to be transferred to the Southern District of New York, arguing that Moore signed a waiver before he went on the show in which he agreed that any legal dispute regarding the show would be fought in New York.
During the “Who Is America?” segment with Moore, Baron Cohen waved an airport-style metal detector over Moore and told him it was a device that the Israelis developed for sniffing out sex offenders.
Moore has been discussing another run for Senate in 2020, and according to recent polls, Alabama voters have viewed another run by Moore favorably: One poll found he is the leading GOP candidate for the seat he was unable to win in 2017.