Roy Moore entered Election Day trying to bat away allegations of anti-Semitism, with his wife Kayla Moore telling the public, “One of our attorneys is a Jew.”
That closing message was not enough to swing the race for the Republican Alabama Senate hopeful, and a day before his Democratic opponent Doug Jones was due to be sworn in, reports said a Jewish attorney who represented Moore’s son in a 2016 case had backed Jones, raised money for him and has been friends with him going back for years.
Richard Jaffe told CNN on Tuesday evening he did not know who Kayla Moore was talking about when she mentioned a Jewish attorney. He described a Washington Post story about his friendship with Jones as “very accurate” and said he had arrived in Washington Tuesday night and planned to go to the Jones’ swearing-in ceremony scheduled for Wednesday.
“I’ve never represented either Judge Moore or Kayla and do not know if the campaign has a Jewish lawyer,” Jaffe told CNN. “I don’t know who she was referring to.”
Despite Moore’s refusal to concede and efforts up through the last minute to challenge the result, Alabama certified Jones’ victory, and Vice President Mike Pence is due to swear Jones into the Senate on Wednesday.
Jaffe has been friends with Jones for decades, helped him campaign and donated some of his own money, according to the Post.
During the campaign, Roy Moore attacked the major Democratic donor George Soros, who is Jewish, by saying that Soros “is going to the same place that people who don’t recognize God and morality and accept his salvation are going. And that’s not a good place.”
Responding to accusations of anti-Semitism following those comments and other coverage of the Republican nominee’s controversial comments and history, Kayla Moore offered examples to argue for her husband’s character.
“One of our attorneys is a Jew. We have very close friends that are Jewish, and rabbis, and we also fellowship with them,” Kayla Moore said.
In his interview with the Post, Jaffe said he did not know if he was the Jewish attorney who Kayla Moore referenced, but that his “reaction to that, irrespective of who they were referring to, was rather shocked.”
“I was certainly disturbed,” Jaffe told the Post. “Not personally, but as a member of a minority.”
The Forward and the Washington Examiner previously reported about Jaffe’s connections to Moore and Jones.
Jaffe is a criminal defense attorney in Alabama, and once represented Eric Rudolph, the convicted serial bomber infamous for the deadly Centennial Olympic Park bombing during the Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta. Jones, a former US attorney, helped prosecute Rudolph, although the Post said Jones was not the lead attorney when Rudolph was apprehended.
CORRECTION: This story has been updated to indicate that The Forward had previously reported about Jaffe’s connections to Moore and Jones.