Trump-Backed Senate Candidate Blames Intern After Work Email Linked to Adult Profile: ‘Looking for Young Guys To Have Fun With’
AP Photo/Joe Maiorana
A Republican Senate candidate endorsed by former President Donald Trump has blamed a former intern after his work email was linked to an adult profile seeking “young guys to have fun with.”
Bernie Moreno’s work email was used to register an account on Adult Friend Finder in 2008 which sought “Men for 1-on-1 sex,” according to AP.
“Hi, looking for young guys to have fun with while traveling,” read the profile, which was linked to Moreno’s work email through records from a data breach.
The records also reportedly listed Moreno’s real date of birth, as well as “geolocation data” which “indicates that the account was set up for use in a part of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where property records show Moreno’s parents owned a home at the time.”
The username of the account, “nardo19672,” references Moreno’s first name, Bernardo, and his birth year of 1967, according to AP.
While AP “confirmed that someone with access to Moreno’s email account created the profile,” it could not “definitively confirm whether it was created by Moreno himself.”
Moreno’s lawyer told AP that an intern had created the account as “part of a juvenile prank,” and even provided a statement allegedly written by Moreno’s former intern taking responsibility for the profile.
“I am thoroughly embarrassed by an aborted prank I pulled on my friend, and former boss, Bernie Moreno, nearly two decades ago,” the intern wrote.
However, AP reported that it could not authenticate the statement and was unable to get in contact with the intern in question.
Last month, it was revealed that Moreno had deleted several anti-Trump social media posts after receiving the former president’s endorsement in his Ohio Senate race.
“There’s no scenario in which I would support Trump,” he said in 2016, accusing Trump of stoking “hatred and fear” and exploiting people’s “worst emotions.”
Moreno criticized Trump as recently as 2021, when he wrote that the then-president deserved “lots and lots of blame” for the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot.
Last year, Trump gave Moreno his “Complete and Total Endorsement,” and wrote, “It’s time for the entire Republican Party to UNITE around Bernie’s campaign.”
In another post, Trump called Moreno “exactly the type of MAGA fighter that we need,” and said he would “stand up to” the “spineless RINOS” in the Senate.
