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Columbus, OH – During the first Senate primary debate, the #OHSEN field “sparred,” “clashed bitterly,” and exchanged “personal attacks,” while making it clear they’re more focused on fighting each other than fighting for Ohioans and the issues most important to them. Plus, after Business Insider reported Bernie Moreno “destroyed” key evidence he was legally required to keep to avoid paying his employees the overtime they earned, a new fact check from WCMH confirms Moreno’s opponents’ attacks that Moreno destroyed evidence he was “obligated” to keep. 

Here’s a recap of what happened last week in what has already been called one of the “messiest,” “most expensive” and “bruising” primary battles in the country. 
 

TOP DEBATE MOMENT: BERNIE MORENO GETS BLASTED FOR DESTROYING KEY EVIDENCE

After new reporting by Business Insider revealed Bernie Moreno shredded evidence he was legally required – and agreed – to keep to avoid paying his employees the overtime they had earned, Bernie Moreno tried and failed to dismiss legitimate questions about why he destroyed the documents on the debate stage:

Matt Dolan during Monday’s debate: “And Bernie, we learned this week, I don’t know if we can trust you. You know, your employees trusted you to follow a court order, and do not destroy documents that help them, their case against you. But what did you do? You shredded those documents, because it helped Bernie Moreno, not the employees. This is a matter of trust.”

Read about the facts here and here. 

And it seems like the attacks will just keep coming…

Live footage of Bernie Moreno shredding evidence to get out of paying his employees the overtime they’d earned:

TOP DEBATE MOMENT: MORENO AND LAROSE DOUBLE DOWN, SUPPORT A GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

Bernie Moreno and Frank LaRose both reiterated their support for a government shutdown despite the devastating consequences for Ohioans. 

Bernie Moreno: “[A government shutdown] would not be something you’d take off the table because it lessens your ability to negotiate.”

Frank LaRose: “You bet I’m willing to shut down the government.” 

TOP DEBATE MOMENT: FIELD DOUBLES DOWN IN SUPPORT OF NATIONAL ABORTION BAN

Moreno, LaRose, and Dolan all doubled down in support of overruling Ohioans by passing a national abortion ban. 

Cleveland.com: “All three Republican candidates on Monday night called Ohio’s new abortion amendment out of the political mainstream, and said they would support a national law banning abortion…”

WVXU: “And all three — Moreno, LaRose, and State Sen. Matt Dolan of Chagrin Falls — agreed there should be a national abortion ban… It makes you question whether the three GOP candidates were paying attention last November when 57% of Ohio voters who went to the polls voted in favor of a ballot issue enshrining abortion rights in the Ohio constitution.”

Ohio Capital Journal: “Dr. Catherine Romanos, a family doctor in Columbus, said her patients ‘breathed a sigh of relief’ after the passage of Issue 1 last November. ‘They asked me less often if what they’re doing is breaking the law and they seem confident to come and get the care that they need,’ she said. Echoing the warning that Republican candidates would support national abortion restrictions, Romanos argued ‘They think they know better than Ohioans. They’re wrong.’”

But even when they’re agreeing with each other, they’re still fighting…

SENATE CANDIDATES OR INTERNET TROLLS?

While insults flew on the debate stage, Bernie Moreno, Frank LaRose, and Matt Dolan also took shots at each other online. 

SLUGFEST COUNTDOWN

53 days left until this Slugfest comes to a head and the infighting just keeps getting worse. 

TOP QUOTES FROM THE DEBATE

Bernie Moreno: “Yeah, I mean it’s silly season.” 

Frank LaRose on Moreno: “Yeah, this is a slick sales pitch from a guy that has changed his view on this.”

Matt Dolan: “First of all, what has changed in Bernie’s world is he now wants to be a Republican candidate for US Senate, he’s running in a primary, so he’s willing to abandon long held principal beliefs.”

LaRose: “What Ohioans don’t care about is a bunch of bickering from a couple of corporate elitists.”

Moreno to Dolan: “But maybe your dad can explain to you how business works.”

Dolan on Moreno: “Well we just heard an absolute political phony answer. He’s trying to reinvent himself.” 

QUOTE(S) OF THE WEEK

WVXU’s Howard Wilkinson on the field supporting a national abortion ban: “It makes you question whether the three GOP candidates were paying attention last November when 57% of Ohio voters who went to the polls voted in favor of a ballot issue enshrining abortion rights in the Ohio constitution.”

Axios: “Bernie Moreno is a corporate elitist. Matt Dolan is a failed career politician. Frank LaRose is a lying, scheming loser.”

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WCMH: “The court record did affirm [the] claim that Moreno got rid of evidence.”

Columbus, OH – After Bernie Moreno faced attacks on the debate stage for shredding evidence he was legally required to keep while being sued by his employees for wage theft, a new WCMH fact check today further details Moreno’s efforts to avoid paying his employees the overtime they’d earned and “affirm[s] [the] claim that Moreno got rid of evidence” he had an “obligation” to keep.  

“Bernie Moreno doesn’t think he has to follow the rules or answer for his decision to shred evidence, just like he didn’t think he had to keep key records despite being legally required to do so,” said ODP Spokesperson Katie Smith. “As the reports and fact checks pile on, the list of questions Moreno must answer about destroying evidence only gets longer.”

Read more from WCMH below:

WCMH: Fact check: Did Senate candidate Bernie Moreno shred documents accusing him of wage theft?

Aaron Burd

January 26, 2024

• During a debate between Republican candidates in Ohio’s U.S. Senate race, state Sen. Matt Dolan accused businessman Bernie Moreno of shredding evidence against him in a court case.

• “Bernie, we learned this week that we don’t know if we can trust you,” Dolan said. “Your employees trusted you to follow a court order and to not destroy documents that helped their case against you. What did you do? You shredded those documents because it helped Bernie Moreno, not the employees. This is a matter of trust.”

• Dolan’s claims allude to a lawsuit filed against Moreno in 2017 by former employee Omar Adem, who worked for him at a Mercedez-Benz dealership in Burlington, Massachusetts. The lawsuit alleged that Moreno had failed to pay Adem for overtime hours as far back as 2015.

• Court records from August 2022 show that Moreno said in a deposition that he received monthly reports telling him if anyone worked overtime in the dealership. However, Moreno testified that he did not retain documents from the dealership […] Moreno added that he shredded documents sometime in late 2020.

• The court record did affirm Dolan’s claim that Moreno got rid of evidence.

• “The inference is clear: Defendants either did not retain or shredded at least these monthly reports,” a judge wrote in the documents.

• “Plaintiffs should not be forced to take Moreno’s word about the substance of these reports,” the records read and further said that Moreno had an obligation to keep such reports.

• The presiding judge wrote that […] Moreno either lost or destroyed documents — which were relevant to the case and he was required to preserve — the court records said. The record also stated that Moreno knew or should have known that he was needed to keep the documents.

• “The monthly reports reflecting overtime were relevant to this case, whether or not salespeople were listed in them,” the court documents read. “Thus, whether negligently or intentionally, the Defendants lost or destroyed evidence that they were required to preserve and which they knew or should have known was relevant.”

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Columbus, OH – Today, the Ohio Democratic Party announced it has hired Katie Smith as Senior Communications Advisor. Smith will support the communications efforts of the Ohio Democratic Party with a specific focus on Republican accountability in the U.S. Senate race.

“The Ohio Democratic Party is excited to welcome Katie to the team as Senior Communications Advisor,” said Ohio Democratic Party Chair Elizabeth Walters. “Katie’s experience working in key battleground states will be critical to ensuring Ohioans know the Republican Senate field won’t fight for them – from overruling our voices by banning abortion nationwide and attacking our healthcare, to making it harder for Ohioans’ hard work to pay off.”

Smith previously served as Communications Director for frontline Democratic Congresswoman Susan Wild in Washington, D.C. and worked on Wild’s campaign communications team in Pennsylvania. She also served as Deputy Digital Director for the New Hampshire Democratic Party. 

With Smith’s hire, Reeves Oyster — who previously filled the Ohio Democratic Party’s Senior Communications Advisor role — will transition into her new role as Communications Director for the Friends of Sherrod Brown campaign. Matt Keyes will remain the primary press contact for the Ohio Democratic Party. Inquiries pertaining to the Republican Senate primary can be directed to [email protected]. 

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Columbus, OH – In case you missed it, the Cincinnati Enquirer editorial board slammed a ruling by Joe Deters and his fellow Republicans on the Supreme Court for putting politics over public accountability. Along party lines, Deters and the Republican-led Court ruled that taxpayers who helped fund the Governor’s trip to the Super Bowl don’t have the right to know how much they paid for the trip. The Governor appointed Deters to the Supreme Court after years of close political connections between the two families, despite Deters lack of judicial experience. 

“Enquirer Executive Editor Beryl Love said it best: ‘The fact this decision was made along party lines speaks for itself.’ Four Republicans signed onto the majority opinion, while three Democrats signed onto the dissent, signaling to taxpayers that this case was less about their right to know and more about protecting one of its own,” writes the Enquirer editorial board. 

“Ohioans deserve better than the political backscratching happening on the Ohio Supreme Court. When the Governor appointed Deters after years of close political ties, questions were rightfully raised about Deters’ ability to be impartial. It’s clear those questions have been answered: Deters will always put politics over people,” said Matt Keyes, spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party. 

Read more from the Enquirer HERE and below:

• Win some, lose some. This one we lost. But the biggest losers are Ohio taxpayers.

• In a 4-3 decision, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled the cost to taxpayers of sending a security detail to the Super Bowl with Gov. Mike DeWine is not a public record. DeWine took 19 family members to Super Bowl 56 between the Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif. on Sunday Feb. 13, 2022. The Ohio State Highway Patrol sent troopers to protect the governor.

• We simply asked for a grand total of what was spent on the taxpayer-funded security detail for the duration of the trip. The notion that releasing that dollar figure could pose a danger to DeWine or sabotage future outings is absurd and an insult to every taxpayer in the state.

• “This decision means a governor can go on a pleasure trip and spend a lot of taxpayer dollars – taxpayers paid for the security detail, lodging, transportation and food required for this period he was at the Super Bowl – and taxpayers just don’t have any idea how much that cost,” said Jack Greiner, a partner at Faruki PLL law firm in Cincinnati who represents Enquirer Media in First Amendment and media issues. “Was it a good thing he went or a bad thing he went? We really don’t know because we don’t have the information.”

• Enquirer Executive Editor Beryl Love said it best: “The fact this decision was made along party lines speaks for itself.” Four Republicans signed onto the majority opinion, while three Democrats signed onto the dissent, signaling to taxpayers that this case was less about their right to know and more about protecting one of its own.

• How releasing the cost of security for the governor’s trip to Super Bowl 56 could pose a danger now or down the road is beyond us. But that information is valuable to taxpayers who want to make certain their elected leaders are being good stewards of their money.

• Allowing the government to operate in secrecy is the real danger.

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Columbus, OH – While all three Republican Senate candidates repeatedly attacked each other during Monday’s debate, one candidate faced particular scrutiny for new reports detailing how he shredded evidence to avoid paying his employees the wages they earned. 

Bernie Moreno tried and failed to dismiss legitimate questions about why he destroyed records he was instructed to keep and “specifically agreed” to hand over to the court during wage theft lawsuits against him.

“Bernie Moreno is taking on even more water after facing attacks about how he destroyed key evidence to get out of paying his employees the overtime pay they earned,” said ODP spokesperson Katie Smith. “Moreno doesn’t think he has to answer for his decision to shred evidence, just like he didn’t think he had to follow the rules and keep key records despite being legally required to do so.” 

Timeline: Moreno Shredded Evidence Before Being Found Liable for Wage Theft

• 2017: Bernie Moreno was sued by a former employee who “alleg[ed] that Moreno had failed to pay him for overtime hours worked.” From the “the beginning” when the lawsuit against him was filed, “Moreno was required to preserve all documents relevant to the case.” 

• January 2020: After he had already been required to preserve all key documents, Moreno again “specifically agreed to do so in January 2020.”

• October 2020 – December 2020: Moreno “destroyed” evidence containing information about his employees’ overtime hours. Evidence that he was legally required to retain and that he agreed to provide to the court. 

• May 2021: During a deposition, Moreno was forced to admit to having “destroyed paper copies of monthly reports containing information about overtime hours worked” by his employees. 

• August 5, 2022: Moreno was sanctioned by a judge for “destroy[ing] evidence,” who said: “…The Defendants lost or destroyed evidence that they were required to preserve and which they knew or should have known was relevant.” 

• August 11, 2022: A jury found Moreno liable for wage theft, finding that his employees proved “they had worked overtime hours and that [Moreno] knew that.”

• November 2022: Moreno is ordered to pay more than $400,000 in damages to his employees. 

• January 2023: Moreno settled 14 additional lawsuits out-of-court. 

• April 2023: Moreno launches his campaign for Senate. 

See more: MUST READ: Bernie Moreno Destroyed Key Evidence To Get Out Of Paying His Employees Wages They’d Earned, FACT CHECK: Moreno Destroyed Key Evidence To Get Out Of Paying His Employees Wages They’d Earned

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