Matthew Hale, the imprisoned white supremacist convicted of plotting to kill a Chicago federal judge, endorsed Republican Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore on Monday.
"There is no evidence Roy Moore committed sexual harassment against any of the woman (sic) that have made these accusations or that Roy Moore is a sexual predator," a news release with the headline "Political Prisoner Matt Hale endorses Moore" states.
The news release, issued by Hale's mother, compares Matthew Hale's legal woes _ insisting that he's innocent _ to the sexual harassment accusations against Moore.
"Anybody can accuse anyone of anything but that doesn't make it true," Hale, who is serving a 40-year sentence at a supermax federal prison in Florence, Colo., is quoted as saying. "I know from my own experience."
The attempted connections between his case and the accusations of sexual misconduct leveled against Moore began and ended there.
Hale, 46, formerly of downstate East Peoria, was convicted by a federal jury in 2004 of plotting the death of U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow after she ruled against him and ordered his supremacist group to change its name in a trademark-infringement case. No attempt was made on Lefkow's life, but the following year the judge's husband and mother were slain in an unrelated tragedy by a disgruntled litigant.
Hale has maintained his innocence, accusing the government of manufacturing evidence and framing him, and he remained consistent about that in Monday's statement.
"I went to law school, passed the Bar and was refused my license to practice law in Illinois," Hale wrote, failing to note he was denied a license to practice because of his racist views.
