Roy Moore Finds a Rival From Afar: Gloria Allred

December 2, 2017 by admin
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“I think she has provided a convenient excuse for Republicans to look the other way, and that’s unfortunate,” Elizabeth BeShears, a Republican communications consultant, said. “Because Roy’s camp has turned this conversation into being about Gloria Allred,” she added, the stories of the accusers “are getting buried.”

For Mr. Moore, a former State Supreme Court chief justice who was effectively removed from the bench twice over debates about the Ten Commandments and same-sex marriage, the tactics are those of political preservation in the closing weeks of a race he was favored to win. But the contest, to fill the seat that Jeff Sessions held before he became United States attorney general, was upended when nine women accused Mr. Moore of unwanted advances or sexual assault. One woman, Beverly Young Nelson, made her claim at a news conference in New York alongside Ms. Allred.

Mr. Moore’s campaign began attacking Ms. Allred before the news conference even began, when the campaign chairman, Bill Armistead, called her “a sensationalist leading a witch hunt.” In the weeks since, Mr. Moore has used his Twitter account to point to Ms. Allred’s refusal thus far to allow an independent party to review a yearbook belonging to Ms. Nelson, which, she and Ms. Allred said, contains an inscription written by Mr. Moore around the time of the alleged assault in the 1970s.

“Good Morning, Alabama!” Mr. Moore wrote Friday, in what has become almost a daily ritual. “Day 17 of attorney Gloria Allred’s refusal to turn over her fake yearbook for third party examination.”

In making Ms. Allred a foil, political strategists said Mr. Moore’s campaign had made a calculation tied to a fundamental of Alabama politics: Voters recoil when they sense someone from out of state is seeking to push them one way or another.

“I don’t know that you could say she’s toxic, but she has a reputation of being a self-promoter and a lawyer who shows up with high visibility clients,” said John D. Saxon, an employment and discrimination lawyer in Birmingham who was the chairman of Bill Clinton’s presidential campaigns in Alabama. “The same way people in Alabama don’t want outsiders telling them how to vote, there’s a resentment for that kind of person and, frankly, for that kind of lawyer sometimes.”

Indeed, Mr. Moore’s overarching strategy, besides stoking conservative anger on issues like transgender rights, seems to clash with other national figures, including Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader who called on him to drop out of the race. Late this week, after a character from Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show disrupted a church campaign event for Mr. Moore, the candidate urged Mr. Kimmel to come to Alabama himself.

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“Despite D.C. and Hollywood Elites’ bigotry towards southerners, Jimmy, we’ll save you a seat on the front pew,” Mr. Moore wrote on Twitter.

But Ms. Allred has been the target of the campaign’s ire for longer. Ms. Allred, 76, has never shied away from controversy, and became one of the country’s best-known lawyers by taking on high-profile cases relating to abortion, gender-based discrimination and sexual harassment beginning in the 1970s.

A copy of a page from Ms. Nelson’s yearbook that was released by Ms. Allred. “To a sweeter, more beautiful girl, I could not say ‘Merry Christmas,’” read the note, which was signed, “Love, Roy Moore D.A.” The Moore campaign has raised questions about the authenticity of the entry.

In a telephone interview, Ms. Allred brushed aside criticisms of her involvement in Alabama and her influence on the Senate race.

“Democrats and the Democratic Party don’t tell me who I should have as a client and what my strategy should be, nor are Republicans permitted to tell me,” she said. “I mean, they can opine, but I don’t take my directions from any party or any person. The only person I serve is my client.”

“I’m a civil rights attorney, I’m a women’s rights attorney,” Ms. Allred said. “Rights for women and minorities are often not popular. Those who advocate for them are sometimes castigated.”

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Most of the complaints about Ms. Nelson’s allegations come back to the yearbook that spawned a mix of amateur analyses and conspiracy theories. Mr. Moore and his allies have repeatedly questioned the veracity of the inscription, claiming there are discrepancies between Mr. Moore’s alleged signature and other words that follow in the inscription.

Ms. Allred, who has refused repeated requests by The New York Times and other news organizations to examine Ms. Nelson’s yearbook, said that she would only release it to congressional investigators if a hearing is convened about the allegations against Mr. Moore. A hearing, she said, would offer “a dignified venue where there is testimony that accompanies the examination of all of the evidence.”

Pressed over whether she could guarantee the authenticity of the yearbook, Ms. Allred did not answer directly. She would not comment about whether she had commissioned her own review of the yearbook.

“The most important witnesses in all of this are Beverly, and Roy Moore,” Ms. Allred said. “Why won’t he subject himself to cross-examination and testimony under oath?”

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Glen Browder, an emeritus professor at Jacksonville State University and a former Democratic congressman from Alabama, said Mr. Moore and his supporters have seized on Ms. Allred, and the yearbook, to bolster their arguments that allegations against Mr. Moore are an unfair attack.

Other experts said many voters had already made up their minds. The distrust of the allegations was already there, said Joseph Smith, the chairman of the political science department at the University of Alabama.

And some women in Alabama are simply grateful Ms. Allred has taken up the cause. “When I see Gloria Allred and she’s beside someone, it verifies their creditably,” said Sheila Gilbert, the chairwoman of the Calhoun County Democratic Party.

As the lingering questions about the yearbook have become fodder for conservative outlets — including Breitbart News, where the executive chairman, Stephen K. Bannon, is a vocal supporter of Mr. Moore — they have also begun to exasperate some supporters of Mr. Jones.

“Frankly, I think it should be produced,” said U. W. Clemon, a retired federal judge who supports Mr. Jones. “Any corroboration that will put to rest a claim that he does not know this woman would be very helpful.”

For Julie Lowe, 56, a bartender, the doubts about Ms. Allred, whom she finds “fishy,” were enough to cut through her confusion over the allegations against Mr. Moore.

“I think it’s kind of trying to sabotage him,” Ms. Lowe, an independent voter, said. “He’ll most likely get my vote.”

Ms. Allred, for her part, said that the attacks reflect attitudes about accusations of sexual misconduct, and that she did not regret the approach she has taken.

“Is it popular in some places for some people in Alabama to care about women over the denial of a powerful man?” she said. “Maybe not, O.K.? But Beverly is now empowered. The women are empowered. There’s no going back now.”

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Four attackers killed in holiday assault on Pakistani university, authorities say

December 1, 2017 by admin
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PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Four attackers were killed and at least 11 other people were injured Friday in a terrorist assault on a university in northwestern Pakistan, authorities told NBC News.

A loud explosion was also heard at Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Agriculture University in Peshawar, about 20 miles from the border with Afghanistan, authorities said.