Roy Moore Accuser Breaks Silence: “I Feel Like a Weight Has Been Lifted”

Leigh Corfman says that she was forced to take a leave of absence from work since the story broke.

Leigh Corfman, who alleged earlier this month that Roy Moore molested her when she was 14, sat down with the Today Show’s Savannah Guthrie on Monday to discuss how the former judge “seduced” her in his home in 1979. 

“I was a 14-year-old child trying to play in an adult’s world, and he was 32 years old,” Corfman said in her first television appearance since the Washington Post first broke the explosive story, which also included the accounts of three other women who said Moore pursued them when they were teenagers. 

A total of nine women have since come forward, but the former judge has vehemently denied all the allegations, claiming they’re part of a plot aimed at destroying his bid in next month’s Alabama special election to replace Jeff Sessions in the Senate. 

Since going public with her account, Corfman said that she felt like a “weight” had been lifted from her life, and that other women have said her courage to do so inspired them to do the same.

When asked if she was paid for the allegations as some Moore supporters have suggested, Corfman replied, “Absolutely not. If anything this has cost me. I’ve had to take leave from my job, I have no tickets to Tahiti, and my bank account has not flourished.” In fact, she said, she has financially suffered from coming forward.

Moore responded to the scandal by using it as fundraising ploy

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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