Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Roy Moore Demands Millions From Sacha Baron Cohen For “Extreme Emotional Distress”

Looks like someone hurt Roy Moore’s feelings.

After being tricked and mortified on national TV by Sacha Baron Cohen, Roy Moore has attempted to salvage his tarnished reputation by slapping a $95 million lawsuit on the comedian. The disgraced judge is demanding that Baron Cohen pay up to atone for the trauma that Moore has endured after “being falsely portrayed as a sex offender and pedophile.”

On his contentious show “Who is America?”, Sacha Baron Cohen interviewed Roy Moore under the guise of an Israeli terrorism specialist, touting an up-and-coming gadget that would identify sex pedophiles. During the episode, Baron Cohen waved the high-tech wand over Moore and it beeped incessantly at him. This spoof clearly hit too close to home for the Southerner, as he has been accused of sexual misconduct with young girls

Judge Moore claims that he was under the impression that he would be speaking to a network called “Yerushalayim TV” (a nonexistent channel and, perhaps, if Moore had done his own research, he wouldn’t have been humiliated on TV), that the interview would revolve around his undying support of Israel, and that he “would not have agreed to appear” if he knew what the interview was actually going to consist of.

Really now. He wouldn’t have gone to the interview if he knew he’d have to confront his sexual misconduct in it? We’re shocked.

The lawsuit includes an elaborate plea, explaining that the judge and his family have been faced with tremendous strain and suffering following the release of the damaging episode, “given his status as a prominent conservative and a God-fearing person of faith.”

Tamar Skydell is an intern at The Forward. You can contact her at [email protected]

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.