US politician pushes $95 million lawsuit against Sacha Baron Cohen after pedophile magic wand performance | US News
A former US Senate candidate is trying to revive a $95 million lawsuit against British actor Sacha Baron Cohen.
An attorney for Roy Moore complained that the Alabama politician was unfairly treated when a judge brought up his lawsuit last July.
US District Judge John Cronan ruled Mr. Moore was not defamed when he appeared in Baron Cohen’s comedy series Who Is America? because it was “clearly a joke and no reasonable viewer could see it otherwise”.
But Mr. Moore disagreed and in New York’s appeals court on Friday, he retried the trial.
His lawyer Larry Klayman even compared his client to the actor Johnny Deppsays Mr. Moore also deserves a jury to determine the validity of his claims – not just a judge.
At the initial hearing, Judge Cronan said it should have been “very clear to any reasonable viewer”, the comedian used humor to comment on allegations in the news reports that Mr. Moore is accused of having inappropriate sexual relations, including with a minor.
Judge Cronan recounted that in the passage, Baron Cohen waved a wand that he claimed could detect enzymes secreted only by “sex criminals and especially pedophiles” and the device appeared to beep when it was moved to near Mr. Moore.
On Friday, Mr. Klayman urged the restoration of the 2019 case to allow him to gather evidence to prove Mr. Moore, the former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, was defamed and mentally distressed. and cheated for being cheated on in a TV interview.
Mr Klayman said: “There is nothing more disgusting than being accused of pedophilia.
“People jump off buildings over there.”
Republican Roy Moore is Sometimes Dubbed ‘Judge of the Ten Commandments’
Judge Gerald E Lynch noted that Mr. Moore signed a release clause for the show, before he knew Baron Cohen was involved, denying reliance on “any statements made about these people.” Who are they and what are they doing?
And he added that Mr Moore’s ability to bring charges of fraud, defamation and willful mental distress was “clearly unleashed” by those signatures.
‘Classic satirical commentary’
However, Mr. Klayman still pleaded for the case to be reinstated, saying: “You have to hand it over to the jury. It’s not up to the judge to decide.”
“This was not handled fairly. It was not handled properly,” he added. “And my client deserves his day in court.”
Elizabeth McNamara, arguing for Baron Cohen, said the actor’s portrayal of himself as being able to tell if someone was a pedophile by waving his wand was “classic satirical commentary fully protected by the First Amendment”.
Mr. Moore, a Republican, sometimes referred to as the “Judge of the Ten Commandments,” is known for his hardline stance against same-sex marriage and in favor of the public display of the commandments.
In the 2017 US Senate race, sex allegations contributed to his loss to Doug Jones, the first Democrat to represent Alabama in the Senate in a quarter of a century.
