On Friday, Beverly Young Nelson, the woman who accused Alabama Senate Republican candidate Roy Moore of molesting her when she was 16-years-old and who brought out a signed copy of her yearbook from Moore to prove her connection to him, admitted that she had written the alleged time and location of the signature below the signature.
Here’s the tape from ABC News:
Nelson stated of Moore’s denial, “That really hurt me. God knows, and Roy knows, and I know what happened. … He did sign it.” When asked by a reporter if she made notes underneath, she answered, “Yes.”
This is bad enough — it’s ridiculous that attorney Gloria Allred and Nelson didn’t reveal that fact when they originally showed the yearbook. It calls into question whether any of the other writing was tampered with; being honest and forthright would have been the only decent policy here. What’s more, Nelson writing the time and location under Moore’s signature but failing to disclose it, pegs the date to Nelson’s memory without acknowledging that Moore didn’t date the signature in the first place.
But conservative media immediately decided to deliberately overplay Nelson’s actual statement. Breitbart headlined: “Bombshell: Roy Moore Accuser Beverly Nelson Admits She Forged Yearbook.” Fox News headlined:
All Moore supporters were looking for was a peg to hang their charges of forgery on; Nelson and Allred provided the peg. But it’s simply untrue to say that Nelson admitted she “forged” the yearbook. She insists that the note and signature from Moore are authentic. What’s more, we know that another woman claims she has a copy of a graduation card with Moore’s signature. And there is another accuser who says Moore molested her when she was 14, and several other women under 18 who say Moore tried to date them when he was in his early 30s.
There’s no reason to lie about the story here. Nelson wrote in the yearbook. She didn’t reveal it. That raises reasonable doubts. But she did not admit to forging Moore’s signature or his note.