Roy Moore, the former Republican Senate candidate from Alabama, last year.CreditBrynn Anderson/Associated Press

Former Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, a man with notoriety on multiple fronts including wanting to govern America as a theocracy, filed a lawsuit on Monday in the Circuit Court of Etowah County, Ala. where he lives with his wife Kayla, writes The New York Times.

Defendants in the suit are Leigh Corfman, Debbie Gibson, Tina Johnson and Beverly Nelson, charged with defaming and conspiring against Moore and his wife Kayla, and of committing libel and slander “by making statements which were false, malicious, and made with intentional or reckless disregard of the truth and with the intent that those statements be published to others, including through state and national media.”

“Those statements caused harm to the reputation and character of Judge Moore and also to his wife Kayla, lowered their standing in the community and discouraged members of the community from associating with them,” the lawsuit said.

The four women accused the former Senate candidate of sexual harassment and of general patterns of behavior belonging to a sexual predator. The reality is diametrically opposed to Moore's portrayal of himself -- including as chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court -- as a moral crusader, according to the women.

The Times writes that Moore "has responded with a ferocity characteristic of his long career. Before last year’s campaign, he was best known for his combative stands on social and religious issues. In 2003, he was removed as chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court after he refused to take down a monument of the Ten Commandments in the state’s judicial building. After being re-elected to the same position in 2012, he refused to enforce the United States Supreme Court’s 2015 decision legalizing same-sex marriage."

Since his defeat, Roy Moore has constantly engaged in online fundraising, seeking supporters financial help to clear his "good name" and to help in his general living expenses.

President Donald Trump campaigned aggressively for Roy Moore, in spite of the sexual allegations, for the November 2017 election in which Moore lost to Alabama Senator Doug Jones, a Democrat.

I've become very involved in this race, working w/women in Alabama. My moods are swinging from positive for Jones (who I've supported since the primary) to despair over the outrageous and untrue statements said about him. This morning's poll gives me hope because the sample is much larger, and it documents that women are significantly more likely to vote for Jones. Turnout among moderate Republican women, Dems, of course, and Alabama's black community are critical.

When working on my own mindset, I remember Va a month ago, where polls showed an even race, but the actual result was huge for Dems.

The beliefs of Roy Moore are so extreme that it astounds me that he could become a US senator. Forget the sexual harassment claims. Moore is a LEADER in the personhood movement, giving ALL legal rights of a grown woman with three kids to a fertilized egg. The state would govern pregnancy, protecting the rights of the embryo.

It's all terrifying -- so terrifying that I forced myself to become educated on the rare third-trimester abortion last night. Not the statistics, which are about 1% nationally and 3 in Alabama last year, but the procedure itself.

In the new poll from Post-Schar collab at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University , 53% of voters in the larger sample of 749 likely voters, said Jones, a former federal prosecutor who prosecuted the Klan for the murder of four little girls in the 1963 Birmingham church bombing , had higher standards or personal moral conduct than Moore. In contrast, about a third of likely voters said Moore, who has cast his campaign as a "spiritual battle" with heavy religious overtones, had higher moral standards.

Among the 1 in 4 voters who said the candidates' moral conduct will be the most important factor in their vote, Jones led, 67% to 30%.

Alabama is a hugely Republican state, and Trump defeated Hillary Clinton by 28 points in the presidential election. But Democrats said they were more enthusiastic about turning out for the special election. By 47% to 38%, more Democratic-leaning voters than Republican-leaning voters said it was "extremely important" to vote in the election. Democratic-leaners were also 12 points more likely to say they were following the race "very closely," and 10 points more likely to say they were "absolutely certain to vote." Read on about the details of this very thorough, data-rich portrait of the race. ~ Anne