Roy Moore sues Sasha Baron Cohen

Roy Moore, who failed to win a seat in the US Senate earlier this year, is suing Sasha Baron Cohen for a segment on his comedy programme, alleging that he was falsely portrayed as a paedophile.

He is seeking $95m (£73m) in damages.

Baron Cohen duped the politician into appearing on Who is America? by telling him he was to receive an award for his pro-Israel stance. Instead, Baron Cohen posed as an “Israeli anti-terrorism expert demonstrating a ‘paedophile detector’", which would beep every time it was waved near Moore, the BBC reports.

Moore has been publicly accused of “pursuing romantic and sexual relationships with children as young as 14 when he was a prosecutor in his 30s”, The Guardian says. Moore denies any wrongdoing.

He is not the first high profile victim of Baron Cohen’s show. In July, Republican Georgia state representative Jason Spencer resigned after he was shown exposing his buttocks and using racial slurs in a mock anti-terrorism exercise.