RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA: NC House Speaker Tim Moore has admitted to having a ‘casual relationship’ with an ex-councilman’s wife. The politician has been sued by Scott Lassiter for ruining his marriage and he is demanding $200,000 in damages from the Republican official. However, Moore said in an interview that the woman Jamie Liles Lassiter was separated from her husband during their relationship.

The veteran politician denies the claim made in the lawsuit, that he used his political connection to start or continue the relationship. "But I also told them that when it came to Ms Lassiter that she’s separated, I’m a divorced man, and that we had had a casual relationship for time," said Moore before adding, "About the situation in December that was alleged where we had dinner together, we did, where we spent time together thereafter. And then where I actually met with her estranged husband [Scott Lassiter] a few days later where I acknowledged to him the same thing as well, as well as my understanding that they were in fact separated," he told WBTV.

'Moore spied on me'

Scott has filed an ‘alienation of affection’ lawsuit against Moore, which is allowed by North Carolina state law. The estranged husband also accuses Moore of planting a camera in front of his house, to dig dirt on him. “John Doe is currently an unidentified defendant. We would like to identify him as soon as possible so that he can be named and served in Mr Lassiter's pending civil action,” Lassiter's attorney Alicia Jurney said, referring to the man who placed the camera.

“The actions of the unidentified defendant have caused Mr. Lassiter a considerable amount of stress. It's upsetting to realize that, while he was sleeping in what he believed to be the privacy of his home, an unknown person was setting up a hidden camera only a few yards away intending to capture him in this intimate setting,” she told the Daily Mail.

Who is Jamie Liles Lassiter?

Jamie Liles Lassiter is the estranged wife of Scott Lassiter, who alleges her of having a relationship with NC House Speaker Tim Moore for over three years. She is believed to have first met him while working as an executive director of the North Carolina Conference of Clerks of Superior Court.

Jamie denies the claims made by Scott in his lawsuit, like Moore, “The claims are not only false but impossible as we’ve been separated with a signed separation document for years.” She further added, “I’m a strong professional woman, and the only person who has ever abused me or threatened my career was my soon-to-be ex-husband.”