Former judge, failed political candidate, Trump supporter and homophobe, Roy Moore has lost his lawsuit against Sacha Baron Cohen over a ‘pedophile detector’ skit.
Scroll down for the clip from Who is America?
A hardline right-wing Republican, Roy Moore was twice removed from the position of Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. First for refusing to remove a marble monument of the Ten Commandments from the rotunda of the Alabama Judicial Building. Then for defying the US Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage.
Moore later stood for the US Senate but lost following allegations of sexual misconduct. Three women stated that, in his 30s, Moore had sexually assaulted them — one when she was 14. The former judge admitted he perhaps dated teenagers in his 30s. However, he denied dating underage girls or committing sexual assaults.
Sacha Baron Cohen
Sacha Baron Cohen pranked Roy Moore with the fake pedophile detector on the television show Who is America?
After leading Moore to believe he would receive an award for supporting Israel, Baron Cohen appeared in character as counter-terrorism expert Colonel Erran Morad. During the skit, the supposed colonel discussed bogus military technology and showed Moore the ‘pedophile detector’.
The device beeped whenever the colonel waved it near Moore who ended up walking out of the interview.
Three judges unanimously ruled to throw out Moore’s $95 million lawsuit. They described the skit as ‘clearly comedy’ and said: “no reasonable viewer would conclude otherwise.”
The judges also noted that Moore signed a release barring him from future claims for defamation, emotional distress, or fraud.
“Baron Cohen may have implied that he believed Judge Moore’s accusers, but he did not imply the existence of any independent factual basis for that belief besides the obviously farcical pedophile detecting ‘device,’ which no reasonable person could believe to be an actual, functioning piece of technology.”
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