A federal judge in Washington, D.C., handed a win to Sacha Baron Cohen in former Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore’s defamation case against the comedian, agreeing to let the case be transferred to federal court in New York.
D.C. District Judge Thomas Hogan made the ruling during a hearing on Monday.
{mosads}Moore is suing Cohen, Showtime and CBS over his appearance last year on Cohen’s show “Who is America?” Moore claims that he was defamed and tricked into appearing on the show, during which Cohen’s character labeled the former Senate candidate as a pedophile by using a device “supposedly invented by the Israeli Army” to detect such people.
Attorneys for Cohen and Showtime argued that a provision in a consent agreement signed by Moore stated that all legal disputes stemming from his appearance on the show would be handled in New York, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Moore ran in the Alabama Senate special election in 2017, but lost the race after he faced allegations from several women that he pursued romantic relationships with them while they were teenagers and he was in his 30s. Several of the women accused Moore of sexual misconduct, including assault.
He has repeatedly denied those allegations.
Moore’s attorney Larry Klayman, founder of the conservative watchdogs Freedom Watch and Judicial Watch, alleged in a press release issued ahead of the hearing that the subjects of Moore’s lawsuit would benefits from a “leftist” jury in New York.
“The Defendants can try to run to New York City where they obviously believe that a leftist jurist will be more inclined to dismiss the case, but they cannot hide from the egregiousness of their cheap and vile acts,” Klayman said in the statement on Sunday.
Klayman said in a statement to The Hill after Monday’s hearing that Hogan had “erred in his ruling,” and claimed that the clause in the agreement to hold all legal disputes in New York was “inoperable, as it was procured through fraud.”
“Chief Justice Moore and I will be appealing his flawed order to transfer the case the the Southern District of New York,” Klayman said, “but no matter where the case is ultimately heard, we are confident that Sacha Baron Cohen, Showtime and CBS will be held legally accountable by a jury for their low class, disgusting and malicious defamatory acts to harm a good man and his family.”
Moore is seeking $95 million in damages for the alleged defamatory action.