In Roy Moore's Senate race, anonymous threats, deceptive texts, alternative facts
By Marc Fisher November 15 at 7:47 PM
A minister in south Alabama gets a phone call from a man who says he is a Washington Post reporter offering cash for dirt about Senate candidate Roy Moore. A man who told an Alabama newspaper about Moore’s alleged approaches to teenage girls when he was in his 30s receives texts falsely telling him he is being sued for defamation.
On Twitter and Facebook, in texts and in phone calls, Alabamians say they are on the receiving end of a muddy river of threats, dirty tricks and angry attacks, all aimed at undermining allegations that Moore, the Republican candidate in next month’s special election to fill a U.S. Senate seat, made sexual advances to teenagers decades ago.
After Blake Usry told AL.com, an Alabama news site, that he knew girls Moore tried to flirt with, Usry received threatening phone calls and Facebook messages, as well as texts informing him that he had been sued for defamation.
One text falsely claimed that northern Alabama’s U.S. attorney, Jay Town, “has verified defamation cases” against Usry and others who were quoted in news articles.
“I just thought, here they go, trying to intimidate me,” said Usry, who lives in Gadsden, where Moore lived and worked. “It could be a religious zealot, some right-wing nut, someone from Roy Moore’s campaign, I don’t know. It doesn’t intimidate me, but it’s caused me misery all day long.”
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/in-roy-moores-senate-race-anonymous-threats-deceptive-texts-alternative-facts/2017/11/15/711c29b2-ca15-11e7-b0cf-7689a9f2d84e_story.html
