Jonathan Lee Krohn and Ryan Grim report for The Intercept that Roy Moore’s political opponents have tried in vain over the years to find evidence proving the Senate candidate had “women issues”:

Republican strategists in Alabama have for years heard rumors that Roy Moore had “women issues” — a euphemism for sexual misconduct used in the politics business — according to four sources who ran various campaigns against Moore, but they were never able to get definitive proof.

“There’s been a rumor for a while,” said David Mowery, an independent political consultant who first heard the allegations in his role as campaign manager for Bob Vance, Moore’s opponent in a 2012 race for chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. “But I don’t know if anyone knew the extent of it, if you know what I mean,” Mowery added.

Moore is the Republican candidate in a December special election for a U.S. Senate seat in Alabama. Luther Strange, who lost the GOP primary to Moore in September, has also known of the broad allegations against Moore for months, according to two sources with knowledge of the campaign’s activities not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. Opposition researchers from Washington and from Strange’s campaign traveled to Moore’s hometown of Gadsden, Alabama, earlier this year, but were unable to confirm the rumors, the sources said.