Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio) filed a defamation lawsuit Wednesday against his ex-wife, Emily Moreno, accusing her of waging a coordinated campaign to destroy his reputation and political career with false allegations of domestic abuse. The suit, filed in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, also names Moreno's Cleveland-based law firm, Zashin Law, and its founder, Andrew Zashin, as defendants.
The lawsuit marks the latest escalation in a bitter divorce and custody fight that has pitted a sitting House Republican against the daughter of a fellow Ohio Republican, Sen. Bernie Moreno. It lands at a moment when intra-party feuds in Ohio have already drawn national attention, and when the personal wreckage of political families is spilling into courtrooms and cable news segments alike.
The Hill, which first reported on the filing, obtained the lawsuit through its broadcast partner NewsNation. The complaint alleges that Moreno and her attorneys issued statements to national media outlets, including the Daily Beast, the New York Post, TMZ, and the Daily Mail, falsely accusing Miller of violent conduct toward her and their young daughter.
The filing pulls no punches in its language. It states:
"These false, malicious, and defamatory statements wrongly and dishonestly claim that Plaintiff committed battery on Moreno by hurling boiling water on her, in front of their minor daughter."
Miller's suit seeks compensatory damages in excess of $25,000, attorney fees, and punitive damages described as being "in an amount sufficient to punish Defendants and deter future similar conduct." The lawsuit also addresses a claim by Emily Moreno that Miller sent her a handwritten letter purportedly apologizing for the boiling-water incident, an allegation Miller disputes through the filing.
Miller took to X to address the suit directly, writing that the allegations "are simply an attempt to destroy my personal and professional reputation." He added: "I look forward to bringing the truth to light in court."
His spokesman elaborated further. AP News reported that the spokesman said Miller "is seeking to hold those responsible accountable and to obtain damages for the significant personal, professional, and political harm that he has suffered."
Miller and Emily Moreno filed for divorce in August 2024. The divorce was finalized last June, according to AP News. At the center of the ongoing dispute is their young daughter, described in New York Post reporting as two years old, and a custody battle that has generated dueling court filings, public accusations, and government investigations.
The Cuyahoga County Division of Children and Family Services investigated claims from 2025 and earlier this year that Miller allegedly abused their daughter. That investigation closed after the allegations were found to be unsubstantiated. The custody dispute had already turned bitter well before the defamation suit was filed.
The New York Post reported that a judge declined to issue a protective order for the child, citing insufficient evidence, but did grant a protection order for Miller against Moreno. Miller alleged in the lawsuit that Moreno and her attorney sought to "malign his character, undermine his odds at re-election to Congress, and falsely portray him as a violent and abusive father and husband."
Emily Moreno's spokesperson, Stefan Mychajliw, pushed back. He told reporters: "Mr. Miller is upset because he's tried to silence Emily Moreno the same way he silenced Stephanie Grisham, and Emily won't let him."
The reference to Stephanie Grisham is not incidental. Before his marriage to Moreno, Miller was in a relationship with Grisham, the former Trump White House press secretary. In 2021, Miller sued Grisham after she accused him of abuse. His attorney at the time said an independent investigation would determine there was "no proof" of abuse and would:
"establish that she has made false allegations against him in retaliation for him breaking her heart by ending their relationship and subsequently becoming engaged to Emily Moreno."
Miller voluntarily dismissed that lawsuit in 2023, Cleveland.com reported. Grisham, for her part, wrote a Washington Post op-ed in which she said she had told President Trump and first lady Melania Trump that her relationship with a White House aide had become abusive. Miller has faced other personal and political turbulence in recent years, including public threats that prompted him to share audio of a death threat he received.
Grisham stated in her op-ed: "They knew when we got a dog for my birthday. They knew when we broke up. They also knew when the relationship turned abusive, and they didn't seem to care."
The pattern is worth noting: two separate women have now accused Miller of abuse, and Miller has now filed defamation lawsuits against both. He dropped the first. The second is just getting started.
Perhaps the most politically charged element of the lawsuit is Miller's direct broadside at his ex-father-in-law, Sen. Bernie Moreno. In a post on X, Miller accused the senator of funding "his daughter's malicious campaign to ruin my life despite his knowledge of her mental health issues."
Miller addressed the senator directly: "Bernie, this must be distracting from your job. These antics harm your own grandchild. Anytime you want to put a stop to this, you can."
The Hill reached out to both Zashin Law and Sen. Moreno's office for comment. Neither response was included in the reporting. Ohio Republican politics have been turbulent enough without a sitting congressman publicly accusing a sitting senator of bankrolling a personal vendetta.
The accusation raises uncomfortable questions for the Ohio GOP. If Miller's claims are true, a U.S. senator is using his resources to fuel a smear campaign against a fellow Republican officeholder. If Moreno's daughter's allegations are true, a congressman abused his wife and child. Either way, the fallout lands on Ohio voters and on a Republican conference that can ill afford distractions.
Several questions hang over the case. The lawsuit's specific case number has not been publicly reported. The exact statements Moreno and her attorneys allegedly made to media outlets have not been detailed beyond the boiling-water allegation. And while the children and family services investigation closed with findings that the abuse claims were unsubstantiated, the precise dates and findings of that closure remain unclear.
It also remains to be seen whether Miller will follow through on this lawsuit or withdraw it, as he did with the Grisham case in 2023. A voluntary dismissal two years into the first suit raises fair questions about whether this second filing will reach a courtroom or serve primarily as a public-relations counterpunch. With the broader Republican congressional landscape already under pressure, the political stakes of an extended legal brawl between two GOP families are not trivial.
Miller's spokesman told the New York Post: "Congressman Max Miller has filed this lawsuit to defend his reputation against false and malicious allegations made by his ex-wife and her attorneys." Whether a Cuyahoga County courtroom vindicates that defense, or whether this suit quietly disappears like the last one, will say more than any press statement.
Defamation suits are blunt instruments. They can expose liars, but they can also be used to intimidate. The facts here, an unsubstantiated child-abuse investigation, a prior lawsuit voluntarily dropped, and a second suit now filed, do not yet resolve the question of who is telling the truth. What they do resolve is that a young child is caught in the middle, and no court filing fixes that.
Accountability matters. So does follow-through. If Miller has the goods, he should take this one all the way to a verdict, not to a press release.
