A sixth woman has accused Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore of sexual misconduct, saying the former Alabama judge grabbed her buttocks in a 1991 encounter.
“He didn't pinch it; he grabbed it,” Tina Johnson told AL.com.
Ms Johnson told the publication that she and her mother had visited the office of Mr Moore, who was then an attorney in Gadsen, Alabama, to handle a child custody matter. She alleged that Mr Moore flirted with her, commenting on her physical appearance, and then groped her once her mother left the room.
The woman’s sister corroborated the account to AL.com.
Multiple accusations of inappropriate sexual behaviour have threatened to derail Mr Moore’s Senate campaign, which had previously appeared to be coasting toward a comfortable victory in reliably Republican Alabama.
The race was rocked by a Washington Post report citing a woman who said Mr Moore initiated a sexual encounter when she was 14 and he was 32. Three other women cited in the piece said Mr Moore had pursued relationships with them when they were teenagers and he was in their 30s. Days later a fifth woman, Beverly Nelson, claimed that Mr Moore had groped her when she was 16.
Mr Moore and his campaign have consistently denied any wrongdoing and rejected allegations against him as politically motivated attempts to undermine his campaign. On the same day that AL.com published a piece detailing Ms Johnson’s allegations, a Moore campaign representative demanded that Ms Nelson allow a handwriting expert to examine a yearbook she said Mr Moore signed as evidence the two had met.
“I have never engaged in sexual misconduct”, Mr Moore said in a statement last week.
Republicans in Washington have abandoned Mr Moore en masse, with many Senators calling on him to leave the race. The Republican National Committee has cut off support for the embattled candidate.
