Roy Moore spokesperson compares sexual misconduct accusers to Duke lacrosse rape case

A campaign spokesperson for Senate candidate Roy Moore compared the women who have accused Moore of sexual misconduct to the woman who in 2006 falsely accused three Duke University lacrosse players of rape, in a CNN interview Wednesday.

Moore is the Alabama Republican judge running for a U.S. Senate seat who has been accused of sexual misconduct by five women, who say the incidents happened when they were teenagers and he was a district attorney in his 30s. The election is Tuesday.

Four of the five allegations appeared in a Washington Post story published Nov. 9, describing claims that Moore molested one girl and tried to court three other when they were ages 14 to 18.

CNN’s Anderson Cooper asked campaign spokesperson Janet Porter on Wednesday about Moore’s credibility, citing Moore’s two-time removal as chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court.

The second time he was removed, the Alabama Court of the Judiciary challenged his honesty, Cooper said.

“You don’t believe any of these women,” Anderson said to Porter, “but you believe Roy Moore, who was removed from office after being found not to be credible and misleading?”

In her response, Porter referred to the woman who falsely accused three Duke lacrosse players of rape in 2006.

Before all the charges in that case eventually were dropped, the case turned into a national controversy about race, class and sexual violence.

“First off, when we talk about believing the women, I would ask the question of maybe some lacrosse players at Duke University, ask them if they believe every woman who makes an accusation,” Porter responded to Cooper.

“If we did a lynch mob media against innocent people as we did with lacrosse, there would be some lacrosse players in jail right now.”

This story was originally published December 7, 2017 at 9:08 AM with the headline "Roy Moore spokesperson compares sexual misconduct accusers to Duke lacrosse rape case."