Sexual assault claims are false, says Roy Moore

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Republican US Senate candidate Roy Moore of Alabama called the sexual misconduct allegations reported by the Washington Post were 'scurrilous' and 'false'.

UNITED STATES (REUTERS) - Republican US Senate candidate Roy Moore of Alabama on Thursday (Nov 16) called the sexual misconduct allegations reported by the Washington Post "scurrilous" and "false".

"As you know, the Washington Post has brought some scurrilous, false allegations that I have emphatically denied," Moore said at a campaign event in Birmingham, Alabama.

"They are not only untrue, they have no evidence to support them."

Two more women came forward on Wednesday (Nov 15) with allegations of sexual misconduct against Moore, one accusing him of groping her and the other of forcing a kiss on her when he was 30 and she was about 18.

They are the sixth and seventh women to accuse Moore of sexual improprieties since his race for the Alabama Senate seat began. Most were teenagers at the time. Moore, 70, has denied the accusations and said he is the victim of a witch hunt.

Gena Richardson told the Washington Post that Moore, then a 30-year-old attorney, had repeatedly asked her for a date in 1977 just before or after she turned 18. Richardson said she finally agreed and went to a movie with Moore, the Post said.

In a dark parking lot at a mall in Gadsden, Alabama, Richardson said Moore gave her an unwanted, "forceful" kiss that scared her, the Post reported.

Another woman, Tina Johnson, told AL.com, an Alabama news site, that Moore groped her while she was in his Alabama law office on legal business in 1991. Johnson, who was 28 at the time, said she visited Moore's office with her mother, who had hired Moore in a custody case involving Johnson's 12-year-old son.

Johnson said Moore grabbed her buttocks as she left. "He didn't pinch it, he grabbed it," Johnson told AL.com.

Reuters was unable to independently verify the allegations from either woman, and Moore's campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Five other women have accused Moore of sexual misconduct or of dating them when he was in his 30s and they were teenagers.

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