Comedian Sacha Baron Cohen on Thursday won a $95 million defamation lawsuit brought by former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, who said he was tricked into appearing on a show satirizing allegations of sexual misconduct on TV. his once morest.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Manhattan, which upheld a lower court’s ruling in Baron Cohen’s favor, said Moore had signed an agreement that he might not make any legal claims regarding his appearance.
The three judges also found it to be “clearly comedy” when Baron Cohen demonstrated a so-called pedophile detector that sounded when brought close to Moore and that no viewer would think the comedian was making factual accusations once morest the politician.
The lawsuit focused on Moore’s inadvertent appearance on “Who is America?” of the British comedian. The segment aired following Moore faced accusations of misconduct during the Alabama Senate race in 2017. He accused him of having sexual and romantic relationships with teenagers when he was in his 30s. Moore denied any such allegations.
Moore, a known hardline Republican who opposes same-sex marriage and supports the public display of the Ten Commandments, had been told he would receive an award for supporting Israel. But in the segment, Baron Cohen appeared as the fictional counterterrorism instructor “Colonel Erran Morad” to discuss fake military technology, including the alleged pedophile detector. The dummy device beeped repeatedly as Baron Cohen brought it closer to Moore, who sat with an impassive face.
“Baron Cohen may have hinted … that he believed Judge Moore’s accusers, but he did not hint at the existence of any independent factual basis for that belief other than the blatant hoax of the pedophile detection ‘device’, which no reasonable person might believe it to be a real, working piece of technology,” the court wrote in the unsigned summary order.
Moore and his wife Kayla sued, saying the segment defamed Moore and caused them emotional distress. The couple claimed that the disclaimer Moore signed was unenforceable because it was obtained under false representation. The appeals court noted that it was in fact a ruse that got Moore to appear on the show, but Moore signed a binding release waiving any legal claims.
The allegations once morest Moore contributed to his loss to Doug Jones, the first Democrat to represent Alabama in the Senate in a quarter-century. The seat returned to Republican control when Jones lost the next election to Sen. Tommy Tuberville, a former college football coach.
Baron Cohen has lured unwitting politicians into uncomfortable interviews for years. He has faced previous lawsuits over similar jokes, but they too were thrown out because people had signed disclaimers.
“For too long, the American people have been subject to the antics of Sasha Baron Cohen. Her cowardly and fraudulent behavior must stop. We will appeal,” the couple said in a statement texted to The Associated Press.
