A federal judge ruled against Roy Moore in a lawsuit the former chief justice of Alabama filed alleging defamation, fraud, and emotional distress after actor and prankster Sacha Baron Cohen conducted a faux interview satirizing sexual misconduct allegations against him during his campaign for the Senate in 2017.
The segment was clearly satire, and Moore’s signature on a consent agreement before the interview foreclosed him from claiming he was defrauded, Judge John Cronan of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York wrote in his ruling on Tuesday. Cronan additionally ruled the statements alleged to have caused Moore and his family emotional and reputational distress are covered by the First Amendment.
Moore and his wife Kayla filed the $95 million suit in September 2018 after Showtime aired the interview as part of the series Who Is America?, which featured a disguised Cohen speaking with a number of high-profile figures, including Sen. Bernie Sanders, former Vice President Dick Cheney, and former Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, among others.
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As part of the segment involving Moore, Cohen dressed up as an Israeli “anti-terrorism expert” named “Gen. Erran Morad” and interviewed Moore at a hotel in Washington, D.C., where he traveled under the impression he was to receive an award for his support for Israel.
During the interview, Cohen began telling Moore of a device used by the Israeli military that detects whether someone is a sex offender. Cohen then brought the device near Moore, and it began to go off, after which Moore ended the interview.
Moore had been accused of sexual misconduct, including by at least one woman who said she was underage when Moore pursued her during his failed bid to take then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s U.S. Senate seat in Alabama months before. He denied the allegations of wrongdoing.
Because of the segment, Moore was subjected to “widespread ridicule and humiliation and has suffered severe loss of reputation.” His family, including his wife Kayla, suffered “severe emotional distress and pain,” the original complaint argued.
The complaint also said the segment “falsely painted, portrayed, mocked and with malice defamed Judge Moore as a sex offender, which he is not.”
Cronan’s ruling determined that because “no reasonable viewer would have interpreted Cohen’s conduct during the interview as asserting factual statements concerning Judge Moore,” the suit’s claims did not meet defamation standard.
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The claims of reputational damage were also dismissed because the segment alleged to have caused the damage was satire, and so it was legally protected, Cronan also said.
The Moores, who sought $95 million in compensation for the alleged damages, filed a notice of appeal on Tuesday following the ruling.
