GOP Senate hopeful hits back at 'sick' report potentially linking him to adult website

ASHLAND, Ohio — GOP Senate candidate Bernie Moreno is dismissing a damaging last-minute report about him that punctuated an increasingly nasty primary, as former President Donald Trump heads to the state to join his final campaign swing.

After a pre-planned meet-and-greet event here, Moreno said an Associated Press story — which linked his email to a 2008 account "looking for young guys to have fun" made on Adult Friend Finder, a website typically used to arrange sexual encounters — amounted to “salacious lies that are intended to be a last-minute smear campaign.”

“It’s a sick, last-minute attack by desperate people. This is what they do. Look at what they did to Judge Kavanuagh, look at what they did to President Trump,” Moreno said. He said he had not discussed the story with Trump, who is scheduled to hold a rally in Ohio on Saturday.

And the former president is still standing by Moreno, his endorsed candidate in Ohio’s Senate Republican primary. With just days to go in the close race, Moreno, Trump and Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) are at a critical juncture in perhaps the most important GOP Senate primary on the calendar.

Trump’s endorsement in Ohio carries huge implications for the Senate race. But with the ugly primary devolving by the hour, the Tuesday contest is now a major test for how much clout Trump and Vance wield in the state.

At the moment, Trump’s planned rally in Ohio to support Moreno on Saturday is still on. And in a statement on Thursday evening, Trump’s campaign made clear he is not reconsidering his support for Moreno.

“The left wing media is obsessed with destroying anyone who supports the America First movement and this ridiculous slime job is simply more proof that Bernie Moreno is a threat to the entire swamp,” said Steven Cheung, a Trump spokesperson.

POLITICO has not independently verified the AP's reporting. The AP could only verify that someone with access to Moreno’s email made the account.

Dan Ricci, a former intern for Moreno, said he created the account as a “stupid prank” and said he had access to Moreno’s email account. Helder Rosa, a former employee, said interns were tasked with checking email accounts.

Still, that explanation is not landing well in some GOP circles, according to a Republican strategist unaffiliated in the race. Moreno’s campaign has been reassuring Republicans for weeks that the email address associated with the Adult Friend Finder account was never used to confirm it, the strategist said.

“We’ve been at this for six weeks. So obviously, we now know what happened,” Moreno said on Friday. “It’s 16 years ago. Somebody pulled a prank … why is that a story? It’s a story because President Trump endorsed me.”

Charles Harder, an attorney for Moreno who is well known for his cases suing media outlets, said multiple people had access to the email account and that Moreno “had nothing to do with the” Adult Friend Finder account.

“According to metadata, the AFF account was never even used — there were no communications or contacts sent to or from any other AFF accounts, and no photos or content were uploaded to it. The AFF account existed for less than a half-day, 16 years ago,” Harder said in a statement.

At the Friday morning event, Moreno spoke to about three dozen attendees and took questions at the end. He did not address the AP story during his remarks and his wife came with him. He did speak with reporters afterward about the report.

Together, Trump and Vance have gotten a number of prominent conservatives behind Moreno, from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio). Many see Moreno as the most Trump-friendly candidate.

"My philosophy is to endorse the strongest conservative who can win, I think that’s clearly Bernie Moreno. He has a compelling life story, he’s an effective communicator. And I think he’d be a very strong candidate in the general election," Cruz said in an interview earlier this week, before the AP story published.

Moreno faces Secretary of State Frank LaRose and state Sen. Matt Dolan, who has the backing of the party’s establishment, including Gov. Mike DeWine and former Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio). Both Moreno and Dolan are wealthy and directly contributing to their own campaign accounts.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee is neutral in the race.

The winner of the primary will face three-term Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) in the general election. Polls show a close race among the three Republicans, with Dolan making a late surge.

Democrats launched a late $2.7 million ad buy to boost Moreno in the final days of the primary, a last-minute effort to elevate who they see as the weakest candidate headed into the general election. If they succeed, it could be an early blemish on GOP efforts to turn the page on Trump's ability to dictate the party's Senate candidates — widely seen as a huge problem in the 2022 midterm debacle.

An East Carolina University poll showed on Friday that Dolan and Moreno are basically tied heading into the Tuesday primary. The same poll showed Brown narrowly leading Moreno and LaRose in a hypothetical race, and Dolan edging him out.

Everett reported from Washington. Alex Istenstadt contributed to this report.