All six judges in Etowah County have recused themselves from presiding over the lawsuit filed last week by former U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore.

According to a court document filed Monday, the judges filed their recusals with interim Alabama Chief Justice Lyn Stuart. The judges asked for an out-of-town judge to be assigned to the case.

The judges cited two reasons for withdrawing: One was that presiding Circuit Judge David Kimberley is a member of the state Judicial Inquiry Commission that suspended Moore as chief justice in 2016, effectively removing him from the high court after he refused to adhere to a federal court ruling permitting same-sex marriages in Alabama.

The other reason is that Moore is a former circuit judge in the Sixteen Judicial Circuit in Etowah County.

Moore filed a political conspiracy lawsuit on April 30 against five defendants - including three women who made accusations that Moore made unwanted romantic or sexual advances against them. The lawsuit maintains that all five defendants worked together to make the accusations against Moore and sabotage his attempt to win election to the Senate.

Moore has repeatedly denied the allegations made by the women. The accusers have said they did not know each other and did not talk with each other before making their claims.

The judges who filed the motion to recuse: Circuit judges Kimberley, George Day, William Ogletree and William Rhea as well as district judges Will Clay and Joe Nabors.

Moore's lawsuit had been assigned to Rhea, according to the court file.

Moore has an appeal before the Alabama Supreme Court to relocate another lawsuit - filed by one of his accusers, Leigh Corfman - from Montgomery County to Etowah County. Moore's attorneys have argued that the case should be moved to Etowah because that is where both the plaintiff and the defendant live and that is where the sexual encounter alleged by Corfman occurred.

A judge in Montgomery County denied Moore's request to move the case to Etowah County, leading to his appeal to the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals - which transferred it to the state Supreme Court.

Moore has filed a counter lawsuit against Corfman in that case.

Etowah County judges recusal by pgattis7719 on Scribd