Roy Moore’s Jewish lawyer voted for Doug Jones
Moore’s wife had said ‘one of our attorneys is a Jew’ as a defense against anti-Semitism allegations
During the Alabama Senate race, the wife of now-defeated Republican candidate Roy Moore cited a Jewish lawyer employed by the couple while defending her husband from accusations of bigotry.
“Fake news will tell you we don’t care for Jews,” Kayla Moore said at a rally for her husband in rural Alabama on December 11. “Well, one of our attorneys is a Jew. We have very close friends who are Jewish and rabbis,” she said.
The Washington Examiner has now reported that the lawyer in question voted for Moore opponent Doug Jones.
Richard Jaffe said he has been a close friend of Jones for decades, and helped raise money for the Democrat’s campaign.
“There could not be a more passionate supporter of Doug than me!” Jaffe told the Examiner.
There was no official confirmation that Jaffe was the lawyer Kayla Moore was speaking of, though he did indeed defend the Moores’ son Caleb when he faced drug charges in 2016.
Accusations of anti-Semitism surfaced against Moore during the campaign, with some observers claiming the candidate played on anti-Semitic tropes in dog whistles to the far-right.
On one occasion Moore suggested Jewish billionaire philanthropist George Soros was headed to hell. “He’s still going to the same place that people who don’t recognize God and morality and accept his salvation are going,” he said.
Jones won the election by 21,924 votes, a margin of 1.6 percent. He is scheduled to be sworn in on Wednesday, when Congress returns from break. Jones’ win came after Moore was dogged by accusations of sexual misconduct involving teenage girls that occurred decades ago.
Moore has since made unsubstantiated accusations of election fraud and has yet to concede the election.
AP contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.