Republican Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore is threatening to sue The Washington Post after it published a story last week that Moore had pursued relationships with teenagers while in his mid-30s, according to multiple reports.
During an event Sunday, Moore called the newspaper’s report “fake news” and a “desperate attempt to stop my political campaign,” according to The Associated Press.
The newspaper “will be sued,” he said during the event.
{mosads}“Why would they come now? Because there are groups that don’t want me in the United States Senate,” he said.
“We do not plan to let anybody deter us from this race.”
The threat comes after a 53-year-old woman told the Post that Moore initiated sexual contact with her in 1979 when she was 14 and he was 32. Three other women also told the Post that Moore around the same time had courted them when they were teenagers.
Moore has denied the allegations, saying they are “completely false.”
Since the reports, several lawmakers have called for him to step aside.
A poll released Sunday showed Democrat Doug Jones leading Moore in Alabama’s Senate race by 4 points, 46 to 42 percent. The poll was conducted after the Post published its bombshell report.