Roy Moore is ready to go to court.

The attorneys for the 2017 U.S. Senate candidate filed a motion in Montgomery Circuit Court on Tuesday asking for a hearing before Judge Roman Ashley Shaul.

The purpose of the hearing, according to the motion, is to address responses from Moore to the lawsuit filed last month by Leigh Corfman, who alleged in a Nov. 9 Washington Post story that Moore sexually molested her when she was 14 years old and he was in his 30s.

Corfman filed a defamation lawsuit against Moore and his Senate campaign committee.

In response to the lawsuit, Moore's attorneys have filed motions seeking to change the case's venue from Montgomery County to Etowah County as well as a motion to dismiss the lawsuit over the issue of the venue as well as a separate motion to dismiss because Corfman did not state a claim for relief to be granted.

The judge ordered Tuesday that Corfman has 14 days to respond to the motion to dismiss.

"If political candidates are unable to defend themselves against statements made which harm their candidacy, without the fear of being sued for defamation if they rebut or deny the allegations, they as individuals, especially those without significant monetary means, will be reluctant to become political candidates," Moore attorneys Kenneth Shinbaum and Julian McPhillips wrote in the motion to dismiss.

Corfman's lawsuit maintained that Moore and his campaign "have defamed Ms. Corfman, repeatedly and in all forms of media, calling her a liar and questioning her motivation for publicly disclosing that Mr. Moore sexually abused her in 1979 when she was a 14-year-old high school freshman and he was a 32-year-old assistant district attorney."

Moore has repeatedly denied the allegations and repeated those denials in the motion to dismiss.

"Unlike what she has alleged against him, Judge Moore has laid no accusation of wrongdoing against Corfman," the motion to dismiss states. "He has merely denied the truth of her accusations and sought to defend his reputation against her attacks on his character. For simply defending his good name against Corfman's accusations, Judge Moore is now the defendant in a defamation action."

In a written statement released to AL.com when she filed her lawsuit, Corfman said that Moore called her a liar and continued to do so even after she publicly asked him to stop via an open letter released to AL.com.

"The decision to sue Mr. Moore and his campaign committee was difficult, but they need to be held responsible for their actions," Corfman said in the statement last month. "Mr. Moore sexually abused me when I was only 14 years old. Then he and his campaign called me a liar and immoral when I publicly disclosed his misconduct. They ignored my requests to stop attacking me and to acknowledge the truth. Just last week, after the election, they filed a lawsuit in which they once again called me a liar. By this lawsuit, I seek to do what I could not do as a 14-year-old -- hold Mr. Moore and those who enable him accountable."

In the motion to dismiss, Moore's attorneys described Corfman's allegations as "a verbal mugging" of Moore's reputation.

"Corfman's theory that Judge Moore could not fight back against a verbal mugging of his reputation because his resistance could harm the mugger is absurd," the motion stated. "Just as a mugger cannot bring an assault charge against his victim for fighting back, so Corfman is not entitled to sue Judge Moore for merely defending himself against her attacks on his character. This case must be dismissed in its entirety under the privilege of self-defense against defamation and based on a public candidate's freedom of speech."

The motion to dismiss also re-stated previous arguments by Moore that describing Corfman's allegations as "false and malicious" in a court filing attempting to stop the certifying of the Senate election results.

Motion to dismiss filed by Roy Moore by pgattis7719 on Scribd