Gloria Allred, the lawyer defending one of the six women accusing Roy Moore of sexual misconduct, said Wednesday she had written to two Senate committees formally requesting a hearing within the next two weeks to investigate the allegations leveled at Moore.
“My client, Beverly Young Nelson, volunteered — and she volunteered on Monday at our press conference — to testify under oath at a hearing before these committees regarding what she alleges Roy Moore did to her,” Allred told CNN of the letters she wrote to the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Select Committee on Ethics.
“And we also urge the committees to subpoena Roy Moore to testify under oath about his denials of the accusations that have been made against him,” Allred continued.
Allred said a Senate hearing would be a “professional setting” in which her client would agree to have an independent expert examine a signature in Nelson’s 1977 high school yearbook that she claims belongs to Moore.
“Obviously it can’t be done in a court of law because, you know, a lawsuit would have to be filed and then it could take many years,” she said.
On Monday, Nelson accused the Republican Alabama Senate candidate of sexually assaulting her, when she was 16 and he was in his 30s, behind a restaurant she worked at in the 1970s.
Moore’s own legal team on Wednesday vigorously defended their client, telling reporters they wanted access to the yearbook to ascertain whether it was authentic with the help of a “neutral custodian.”
They also raised questions about why Young failed to disclose that Moore, a former judge, presided over her divorce proceedings in 1999.
Allred said she and her client would “not be distracted” by concerns over the yearbook or the divorce case.
In addition, Allred would not comment on whether other women accusing Moore of sexual misconduct had sought legal advice from her or her firm.
As of Wednesday, six women have claimed Moore behaved inappropriately towards them.
Moore’s special election for U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ old U.S. Senate seat is scheduled for Dec. 12.
