Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore on Thursday issued a preemptive denial about an explosive story published by the Washington Post about allegedly improper relations with underage girls.
Moore issued a formal denial of the impending story to Breitbart News, in which he said the story was concocted by the Democratic Party to defeat his senatorial campaign.
"These allegations are completely false and are a desperate political attack by the National Democrat Party and the Washington Post on this campaign," Moore tells Breitbart.
As for the report itself, the Post has a woman named Leigh Corfman on the record claiming that Moore made sexual advances toward her when she was just 14 and when Moore was in his 30s.
Corfman's mother and two of her childhood friends corroborated her account.
Corfman tells the Post that she was reluctant to speak out about the incident for years, but said she wanted to come forward because she couldn't stand the thought of Moore not being confronted with his past behavior.
"I have prayed over this," she tells the Post. "All I know is that I can’t sit back and let this continue, let him continue without the mask being removed."
Three other women interviewed by the Post also say that Moore approached them and made sexual advances toward them when they were still teenagers.
"Wendy Miller says she was 14 and working as a Santa’s helper at the Gadsden Mall when Moore first approached her, and 16 when he asked her on dates, which her mother forbade," writes the Post. "Debbie Wesson Gibson says she was 17 when Moore spoke to her high school civics class and asked her out on the first of several dates that did not progress beyond kissing. Gloria Thacker Deason says she was an 18-year-old cheerleader when Moore began taking her on dates that included bottles of Mateus Rosé wine."
The Post claims that none of the women it interviewed sought out the paper to tell their stories. Rather, a Post reporter first heard about Moore's relations with underage women while covering the Alabama Senate race, and from there reporters began interviewing people whom they believed might have been approached by Moore.