The Alabama Media Group has flatly rejected a demand from Roy Moore’s attorneys to “cease and desist” reporting about accusations of sexual misconduct against the Republican Senate candidate.
Any court action would “also reveal other important information about your clients,” warned the letter from attorney John Thompson of Lightfoot Franklin White, reported The Washington Post.
Thompson’s letter demanded that Moore and his attorneys preserve all “materials, documents, writings, recordings, statements, notes, letters, journals, diaries, calendars, emails, videos, computers, cell phones, electronic data, and other information” related to allegations of sexual misconduct that could be used in the event of a lawsuit.
AMG owns several publications, including AL.com, The Birmingham News, The Huntsville Times and the Press-Register ― all of which ran an editorial on Sunday urging readers to “stand for decency” and reject Moore in the Senate special election on Dec. 12.
Law firm Garmon & Liddon sent a cease-and-desist warning to AMG last week on behalf of Moore, his wife and their Foundation for Moral Law.
The letter accuses AL.com of making false claims. It points to a note in a high school yearbook that one of Moore’s accusers says Moore wrote and that his attorneys say doesn’t resemble his handwriting. It also challenges reports about a “fifth woman” accusing Moore of misconduct and about Moore allegedly being banned from an Alabama mall after pestering teenage girls.
“You have accused AL.com of making ‘false reports and/or careless reporting’ about multiple subjects related to your clients,” Thompson responded on behalf of AMG. “Your letter demands that AL.com retract and recant its prior stories and that it ‘cease and desist’ from any further reporting about your clients. AL.com hereby rejects your demand.”
Moore threatened to sue The Washington Post after the newspaper published the first bombshell story about him, in which a woman said he had molested her when she was 14 years old and he was in his 30s. Three other women told the Post that Moore asked them out on dates when they were teens and he was much older. There has been no word of that lawsuit yet.