Bernie Moreno
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Bernie Moreno is a Republican United States senator from Ohio and the father of Emily Moreno, the wife of Congressman Max Miller. He broke his silence on his daughter's abuse two years after the allegations surfaced, writing that Miller "needs serious psychological help. He is a danger to my daughter and I hold my breath every minute he has custody of my granddaughter. If there are any basic standards of character required to hold elected office, Max Miller fails them. He should not serve in the House of Representatives."

Kiriakou's interest is in the timing. The statement came in August, after Miller had already won his primary uncontested in May, and it came from a sitting senator about his own son-in-law. One innocent explanation is available, a father not wanting to influence a live court case, which Kiriakou allows, "but there's also the possibility of blackmail."

The material

What he points to is a message Miller sent Moreno before Moreno became a senator: "People are about to get to know you better than your wife does. Take that however you like." Separately, a profile under the username Nardo19672 carrying the caption "looking for young guys to have fun with while traveling" was attributed to Moreno by an Associated Press review of records made public through a large data breach. Moreno did not deny the profile; he blamed it on an intern and called it a prank. The intern duly issued a statement describing himself as "thoroughly embarrassed by an aborted prank I pulled on my friend and former boss" nearly two decades earlier, and, according to campaign finance records, then donated $6,599 to Moreno's campaign.

Kiriakou declines to draw the obvious conclusion and says the question does not interest him: "Is Moreno closeted gay? Who knows? Who cares? But it's all part of this bigger scandal." What follows from it, in his account, is the general question of how many politicians are being blackmailed over the same thing. Politically he expects Moreno to suffer for appearing "completely spineless" while his daughter was allegedly being beaten and burned; Moreno was already behind the former senator Sherrod Brown in Fox News polling a week earlier.

See also

- Max Miller
- Blackmail Of Closeted Politicians
