Alabama GOP Senate hopeful Roy Moore calls son's ninth arrest a 'cheap political trick'

Former Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore, who won a hotly-contested Republican Senate primary against incumbent Sen. Luther Strange (R-AL) last month, is calling his son Caleb's ninth arrest a "cheap political trick."

According to AL.com, Caleb Moore was charged with third-degree criminal trespassing, a misdemeanor related to another misdemeanor charge from November 2016 for hunting without a permit.

In a statement, Judge Moore's campaign chairman Bill Armistead said the "personal matter" is a "cheap political trick to detract from the real issues facing our country."

The statement echoes Caleb's claims in 2015, when he took to social media after a marijuana and Xanax possession charge to blame his arrest on people opposed to his staunchly anti-LGBT father.

"This is nothing more than a prime example of how media and crooked police officers and critics of my dad try to not only destroy his career for what he stands for but will go as far as trying to destroy his family," the younger Moore wrote in a Facebook post that has since been deleted. "I am not a drug user as the drug test taken today will show. As for the malicious possession charges, justice will be served."

As AL.com noted, the 2015 charges against Caleb Moore were dropped "after he agreed to enter a pre-trial diversion program with the Pike County District Attorney's Office, court records show." He has also been charged with DUIs in Alabama and Florida, and had three other drug-related charges in three separate Alabama counties.