Roy Moore would be a ‘threat to the safety’ of teenage pages at the Capitol, congresswoman says
Pages must be at least 16 years old
Adapted from a story by The Washington Post’s Eli Rosenberg.
Controversial Alabama judge and U.S. Senate hopeful Roy Moore (R) would pose a threat to the teenagers who work as pages in the Senate if he is elected, a Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.) said.
In a letter to the administrative body that runs the Senate, Gwen Moore said she was concerned about Roy Moore’s potential interactions with the high school juniors who make up the Senate’s pages, and asked whether the office was preparing for his possible election. The letter was delivered on Friday but was revealed Monday.
Roy Moore faces Democrat Doug Jones in today’s Alabama special election. At least nine women have said Roy Moore — then an assistant district attorney in his 30s — pursued them when they were teenagers or in their early adult years. One woman, Leigh Corfman, said she was 14 years old when Roy Moore touched her inappropriately.
“I write you today to share my urgent concern regarding the threat to the safety of the young men and women working in the United States Senate Page Program if Roy Moore becomes the U.S. Senator,” Gwen Moore wrote. “I would like to know what preventative steps are being undertaken to safeguard Senate Pages from predatory conduct of U.S. Senators and Senate staff.”
Pages assist with low-level tasks such as bringing water, delivering documents and helping out in the cloakroom. The rules stipulate that pages must be at least 16 years old. The program dates to 1829, and women were allowed into the program beginning in 1971.
Eric Harris, a spokesman for Gwen Moore, said the congresswoman’s office has not received a response.
When asked about the letter’s timing — a few days before the Alabama special election, rather than after, in the event that Roy Moore wins — Harris said that the office could not wait to take action.
“The congresswoman believes that prevention, rather than intervention, is the most effective way to approach this issue,” Harris said in an email.
Roy Moore’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment. Last month, his campaign adviser Brett Doster said that he would “not respond to anyone from The [Washington] Post now or in the future.”
Moore’s candidacy has split his party, with some Republicans saying that he would face an ethics investigation if elected. But the Republican National Committee and others such as President Trump, who faces calls for an investigation concerning accusations of sexual misconduct made against him, have lined up to support Moore.
Prior scandals in the House
The page program in the House, which was canceled in 2011 after the body’s leaders said it was made largely obsolete by email and other technological advances, was rocked by two sex scandals.
Reps. Gerry E. Studds (D-Mass.) and Daniel B. Crane (R-Ill.) were censured for having sex with 17-year-old pages in separate incidents in the early 1980s and in 2006. Mark Foley resigned after it was revealed that he had sent explicit emails and messages to current and former male House pages. Leaders vowed to improve the program’s oversight at the time.
Gwen Moore cited the Foley scandal in her letter.
“We need to be vigilant stewards of these children going forward,” she wrote.
