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Attorney says Roy Moore supporters offered him $10,000 to drop client who accused the Senate candidate of sexual impropriety

 
BIRMINGHAM, AL - NOVEMBER 16:  Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Judge Roy Moore listens to a question during a news conference with supporters and faith leaders, November 16, 2017 in Birmingham, Alabama. Moore refused to answer questions regarding sexual harassment allegations and pursuing relationships with underage women. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) 775076806
BIRMINGHAM, AL - NOVEMBER 16: Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Judge Roy Moore listens to a question during a news conference with supporters and faith leaders, November 16, 2017 in Birmingham, Alabama. Moore refused to answer questions regarding sexual harassment allegations and pursuing relationships with underage women. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) 775076806
Published March 23, 2018

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Days after a woman accused U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore of sexual impropriety, two Moore supporters approached her attorney with an unusual request.

They asked lawyer Eddie Sexton to drop the woman as a client and say publicly that he did not believe her. The damaging statement would be given to Breitbart News, then run by former White House strategist Stephen Bannon.

In exchange, Sexton said in recent interviews, the men offered to pay him $10,000 and promised to introduce him to Bannon and others in the nation's capital. Parts of Sexton's account are supported by recorded phone conversations, text messages and people in whom he confided at the time.

The effort to undermine Leigh Corfman's allegations — beginning on Nov. 13, a month before the election — shows how far some of Moore's most fervent supporters were willing to go to salvage an Alabama campaign that many hoped would propel a nationwide populist movement and solidify Bannon's image as a political kingmaker.

In the phone conversations and texts, copies of which were obtained by the Washington Post, one of the men spoke of ties to Moore and Bannon while urging Sexton to help "cloud" the allegations, which included other women's claims that Moore pursued them when they were teenagers and he was in his 30s.

"What they're saying, all they want to do is cloud something," Gary Lantrip, who attended at least one private fundraising event for Moore, said during a phone call recorded by Sexton. "They said if they cloud, like, two of them, then that's all they need."

Lantrip also made references to money — at one point speaking haltingly about "the ten (pause) dollars," a shorthand for the $10,000 offer, Sexton said.

"We got some chance to do something, make some quick little-bitty for you .?.?. and then, on down the line, we can go to D.C.," Lantrip said during the recorded call.

Sexton was initially reluctant to talk publicly about the alleged offer, because the men — Lantrip and Bert Davi, business partners in a small construction firm — are his clients in an unrelated court case, a dispute over a real estate venture. Sexton decided to speak publicly after repeated requests over months from Washington Post reporters, who contacted him after obtaining one of the recordings.

Sexton vouched for the authenticity and accuracy of the recordings and messages.

In a statement, Moore said Thursday that Lantrip and Davi had attended rallies but that the campaign was not involved in any effort to pay Sexton. "I nor anyone else in the campaign offered anyone money to say something untrue, nor did I or anyone else authorize someone else to do such a thing," he wrote.

A spokesman added that, although Lantrip and Davi had met Moore, "they did not have any special access to Judge Moore, nor were they ever commissioned with any special tasks by the campaign team."

A spokeswoman said Bannon, who worked in the White House until August, could not be reached for comment.

In separate interviews on Monday, Lantrip, 55, and Davi, 50, acknowledged seeking the statement and arranging a meeting between Sexton and two Breitbart reporters but denied doing anything improper.

During a 20-minute interview at a construction site in Birmingham, Davi parried questions about money, saying his partner would know details of what was offered to Sexton. "That was between Eddie and Gary," Davi said. Asked where the money would have come from, he said, "Probably Gary."