MAGA-backed Senate candidate could be linked to hookup website: report

Editor's note: This story has been updated to include additional information.

A MAGA-backed candidate who's running in a critical Ohio primary election potentially has some questionable online baggage.

Bernie Moreno, who at one point backed LGBTQ rights before turning against them, has received former President Donald Trump's support.

But in his wake is the existence of a 2008 profile seeking “Men for 1-on-1 sex” on a casual hookup website called Adult Friend Finder (AFF), according to The Associated Press.

A former intern for Moreno has taken the blame for posting the suggestive ad as "part of a juvenile prank".

“I am thoroughly embarrassed by an aborted prank I pulled on my friend, and former boss, Bernie Moreno, nearly two decades ago,” Dan Ricci said in a statement provided by Moreno's attorney, Charles Harder.

Further, Harder, told the wire service that Moreno “had nothing to do with the AFF account.”

The AP reported that it was unable to independently confirm Ricci’s claim and, when a reporter reached out for comment, he didn’t respond.

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The article noted that Ricci donated $6,599 to Moreno’s campaign last year, citing campaign finance records.

The AP, relying on both leaked data and publicly available information from Adult Friend Finder, found that Moreno's profile was created and authenticated by "someone who had access to Moreno’s work email account."

Harder and the intern, however, said it was a "public-facing email account" which many people had access to, and not a personal one. Harder said the Adult Friend Finder account was open for six hours, 16 years ago, and never opened again.

Andrew Conru, the founder of Adult Friend Finder, also put out a statement on X.

"I reviewed all the available information and it showed that the account had only a single visit, no activity, no profile photo, consistent with a prank or someone just checking out the site," he wrote.

He added, "My sincere apologies to Bernie and anyone similarly affected by the 2016 data incident."

Cybersecurity researcher and former National Security Agency hacker Jake Williams confirmed the email address was found in the leaked data. "This is a telling example of how this data doesn’t just go away,” he told The AP.

The issue has Democrats seeing opportunity.

“Moreno would lead the charge to enact Trump’s MAGA agenda to repeal Obamacare and institute a national ban on abortion,” a narrator says in an ad spot from Duty and Country PAC, which is affiliated with a Democratic super PAC.