Onetime U.S. Senate candidate and former Alabama judge Roy Moore has gotten a green light in his lawsuit against shock/cringe comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, who made Moore out to be a pedophile in a practical-joke-style interview two years ago, AL.com is reporting.
Moore was tricked into appearing on a five-minute portion of Cohen’s show Who Is America?, which aired in 2018. Cohen posed as an Israeli counterterrorism instructor called Erran Morad.
In the segment, Cohen’s character demonstrated a purported pedophile detecting device that beeped each time he waved it toward Moore. While this might have been hilariously funny to the comedian, Moore and his wife Kayla were not so amused and filed the suit in September 2018.
Now a New York federal judge has refused to dismiss Moore’s $95 million defamation lawsuit against Sacha Baron Cohen and the networks Showtime and CBS. According to the suit, the Moores are suing for defamation and distress after being misled with the fraudulent interview. U.S. District Judge Andrew Carter denied Baron Cohen’s request to have the $95 million lawsuit dismissed, AL.com reported.
The Moores reportedly warned Cohen and his production team at the time that if the “offensive and defamatory interview” was aired, they would take legal action.
“We are gratified that the Court is allowing the Moores’ case to go forward and we look forward to putting Cohen and the other defendants under oath,” said Moore’s lawyer, Larry Klayman, a former federal prosecutor.
Klayman elaborated: “The alleged defamation of Chief Justice Moore was malicious and despicable and it is time that a jury of the parties’ peers allow justice to be done. Great harm has been caused to my clients, which must be addressed and remedied.”
