Republican Roy Moore won $8.2 million in a defamation suit Friday against a Democratic super PAC that ran a negative ad against him in the 2017 U.S. Senate race.
Senate Majority PAC funded another group named Highway 31 that ran the ad in question.
The advertisement spliced together statements including “Moore was actually banned from the Gadsden mall … for soliciting sex from young girls” and “one he approached was 14 and working as Santa’s helper.”
In a previous defamation suit, Wendy Miller testified about her experience with Moore, telling the jury that he had first met her when she was a Santa’s helper and that Moore had asked her mother for permission to date the girl, just 15 or 16 at the time.
However, Miller’s mother refused and Miller did not say Moore had ever solicited sex from her.
Only two women, Leigh Corfman and Beverly Young Nelson, have accused Moore of attempting anything physical. The rest told stories of either dating Moore while they were underage with no attempted sexual contact or being approached by Moore and declining to date him.
Corfman alleged Moore sexually touched her in 1979 when she was 14 and he was 32. A jury ruled against both Moore and Corfman in a cross-defamation suit earlier this year, which Moore painted as a victory.
Attorneys representing Highway 31 and the Senate Majority PAC said they plan to appeal the most recent decision, saying the ad was “substantially true.”
