Rep. Max Miller, who has been accused of abusing his ex-wife, is now suing her for defamation — a major escalation in an ongoing public dispute between the two-term Ohio Republican and the daughter of Ohio GOP Sen. Bernie Moreno.
In a copy of the complaint filed Wednesday evening in Cuyahoga County, Ohio and reviewed by POLITICO, Miller claims that his ex-wife, Emily Moreno, and her legal team made “false, malicious, and defamatory statements wrongly accusing [him] of being a violent and abusive husband and father.”
Miller, who shares a child with Emily Moreno, is also suing her legal team and maintained that conflicts with his former partner were, in part, the result of what the complaint describes as her mental health challenges. The lawmaker is seeking no less than $25,000 in damages.
According to Miller’s complaint, Emily Moreno and her legal team “engaged in a defamatory campaign against [Miller] to malign his character, undermine his odds at re-election to Congress, and falsely portray him as a violent and abusive father and husband” during the course of custody proceedings around the former couple’s daughter.
Earlier this month, the Daily Mail reported that Miller was battling domestic violence allegations from his now ex-wife. The article included accusations that Miller threw boiling water at Emily Moreno in front of their child and published photographs of what appeared to be injuries that she sustained from the alleged abuse. Other news outlets have also written about these allegations.
Miller quickly took to social media, calling the Daily Mail reports “nothing but lies.” He also accused first-term Sen. Moreno of funding “his daughter’s malicious campaign to ruin [his] life despite his knowledge of her mental health issues.”
“Bernie, this must be distracting from your job,” Miller wrote on X. “These antics harm your own grandchild. Anytime you want to put a stop to this, you can.”
Andrew Zashin, an attorney for Emily Moreno, declined to comment and referred the matter to his own lawyer. That lawyer did not immediately return a request for comment. A spokesperson for the senator also had no comment.
Now, Miller is insisting the allegations of misconduct have cost him “actual damages in the form of lost business opportunities, reduced campaign contributions to aid his reelection campaign to Congress, and other pecuniary harms that will be quantified in an amount to be proven at trial,” according to the complaint.
“Congressman Miller is seeking to hold those responsible accountable and to obtain damages for the significant personal, professional, and political harm that he has suffered,” said a Miller spokesperson in a statement, adding that the lawmaker was pursuing the lawsuit to “defend his reputation.”
Unrelated, Miller has also been accused of slapping another former romantic partner — a separate claim he denied through an attorney.
Miller is coming under the microscope amid a renewed reckoning on Capitol Hill over lawmakers’ unethical behavior, which has put significant pressure on members of both parties to quickly root out bad actors inside their ranks.
In the House, it has led to the resignation of three members over the course of five weeks. Former Reps. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) and Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) resigned over accusations of sexual assault and an inappropriate relationship with a staffer, respectively. Swalwell has publicly apologized for his “mistakes in judgment” but vowed to fight what he called “false allegations” and Gonzales had denied wrongdoing but ultimately admitted to the affair.
Former Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.), meanwhile, stepped down rather than face a likely expulsion vote after the House Ethics Committee found she illicitly funneled money to support her campaign — charges she has refuted.
Other lawmakers under scrutiny include Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.) who is accused of various misdeeds including threatening to release a former girlfriend’s explicit videos. In an apparent effort to show they were taking the case seriously, leadership of the bipartisan Ethics Committee announced Monday in a highly unusual statement that it had already pursued several steps to aggressively investigate the allegations, including approving 20 subpoenas. He has denied wrongdoing.
The Ethics panel is also pursuing a case against Rep. Chuck Edwards over allegations of sexual harassment and an improper relationship with staff. The North Carolina Republican has said the “baseless allegations [are] designed to impact the campaign driven by those who want to settle old political scores.” But some of his Republican peers who helped force Swalwell and Gonzales out of Congress have indicated they could try to force accountability in Edwards’ case, too.
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