Ohio Republican Rep. Max Miller faces a tightening reelection race and growing calls for a House Ethics investigation after his ex-wife alleged in police reports that he threw her against a wall and once held a gun to her head.
Emily Moreno, Miller's ex-wife and the daughter of U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno, told police that the congressman "threw her against the wall, which resulted in an obvious grab mark on her upper arm" during one incident, ABC News reported after obtaining the police reports. In separate statements to officers, Moreno alleged Miller had previously "held a gun to her head" and thrown hot water on her. She also recounted her two-year-old daughter telling her, "Daddy kill you."
Miller has never been charged with a crime. He has denied the allegations and filed a defamation lawsuit against Moreno, calling her accusations a "repeated pattern" designed "to ruin my reputation, gain an edge in custody and litigation matters, and seek revenge." The Department of Children and Family Services did not substantiate allegations of child abuse, according to records released in court filings.
The case now sits at the intersection of a messy divorce, an active custody fight, pending litigation, and a congressional race that national Democrats believe they can flip. For voters in Ohio's 7th District, a seat Trump carried with 55 percent of the vote in 2024, the question is whether the allegations amount to disqualifying conduct or a weaponized family dispute. The facts available so far do not settle that question, and the political machinery on both sides is already grinding.
Miller, a former Trump White House aide, married Emily Moreno in 2022. President Trump gave a toast at the ceremony, held at Mar-a-Lago. The marriage lasted roughly two years before the couple divorced in 2024. They share a two-year-old daughter.
The fallout has been public and increasingly hostile. In May, Miller posted on X accusing Sen. Bernie Moreno of bankrolling his daughter's legal campaign against him. "It is unfortunate that @berniemoreno continues to fund and enable his daughter's malicious campaign to ruin my life despite his knowledge of her mental health issues," Miller wrote. "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."
A spokesperson for Sen. Moreno told The Washington Post that the senator's "top priority is the safety and well-being of his daughter and granddaughter," adding that "he does not litigate these matters in the media or respond to baseless public attacks" but "will do whatever it takes to ensure a just outcome for his family."
Moreno's lawyers recently applied for a restraining order against Miller, citing "harassment and threats" directed at her legal team. That application is the latest escalation in a legal dispute that has produced a steady stream of filings on both sides.
Moreno is not the first woman to accuse Miller of physical abuse. Former White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham alleged in her 2021 memoir that she had been physically abused by her partner while working in the Trump administration. She did not name Miller in the book but later identified him in a Washington Post op-ed. Grisham also said she had told White House officials about the alleged abuse at the time and that they failed to act.
Miller sued Grisham for defamation in 2023 while running for Congress. The two reached a confidential settlement. Grisham is now suing Miller again, alleging he violated the terms of that settlement by discussing the case publicly in his denials of Moreno's allegations.
Two separate women alleging abuse by the same man, years apart, under different circumstances, is a pattern that voters and party leaders will have to weigh. Miller's position is that both sets of accusations are false. No criminal charges have resulted from either woman's claims.
An Ohio judge has already weighed in on one dimension of the legal fight. Miller himself filed a domestic violence petition that a court dismissed after finding no evidence he was harmed.
Miller won his seat in 2024 with 51 percent of the vote, four points behind Trump's margin in the same district. That gap already signaled personal vulnerability. The allegations have widened it.
The Cook Political Report shifted the race from "Solid Republican" to "Likely Republican" last month, shortly after internal polling found Democratic challenger Brian Poindexter trailing Miller by a single point. Poindexter, a union ironworker, has leaned into the allegations directly.
"If all the allegations against Congressman Miller prove to be true, Max Miller should be in jail, not worried about retaining a seat in Congress."
That was Poindexter's statement on the matter, a line calibrated to sound tough without overstepping the fact that Miller has not been charged.
The House Majority PAC, the main Democratic super PAC focused on House races, told ABC News it is "willing to do whatever it takes to take back the House, and nothing is off the table." The group did not specifically confirm planned spending to support Poindexter but said Democrats "are expanding the map deeper into Trump territory by the day."
Meanwhile, the Battleground Alliance PAC, described as a pro-labor group, conducted robocalls to roughly 100,000 households in the district last month, recounting the abuse claims made by both Moreno and Grisham. The PAC's spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment. Miller's own legal team has faced accusations of violating a restraining order through public statements about the case.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, asked about the allegations against Miller at a press conference last week, offered a procedural non-answer:
"Well, the key word there is allegation. We have a process here. The House Ethics Committee works on those things. If allegations are made, they work through a process. So I, I'm not in the business of commenting on investigations as they, as they're in process, and we'll see how that shakes out."
Johnson was also asked about Rep. Cory Mills of Florida, who remains under a separate House Ethics investigation for a range of allegations that include domestic violence by a former partner. Mills denies all allegations of misconduct. The twin cases have put Republican leadership in the uncomfortable position of managing two members under similar clouds heading into a midterm cycle where the House majority is narrow.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, called the accusations against Miller "troubling" and said "people of the district are having to weigh the facts." That measured language from a senior GOP figure in the congressman's home state is notable, it stops well short of a defense.
Democrats have been less restrained. Rep. Shontel Brown of Ohio called on Miller to resign outright. Rep. Sam Liccardo, a California Democrat, posted on X demanding an immediate Ethics Committee investigation:
"Allegations that Max Miller abused his wife and child demand an immediate House Ethics Committee investigation. Congress must never serve as a safe harbor for abusers."
The Ethics Committee itself declined to say whether it has opened a formal investigation. The Republican National Congressional Committee also declined to comment on the specific allegations, saying only that it does not discuss spending decisions as a matter of policy. The White House declined to comment on the abuse claims.
The stonewalling from party institutions leaves Miller in a kind of political limbo, not defended, not condemned, and not investigated in any publicly confirmed way. That vacuum benefits Democrats, who can keep the allegations in the news without anyone in authority resolving them. Miller's reported conduct outside the courtroom has only added fuel.
Several critical facts remain unknown. No specific dates for the alleged incidents of violence have been made public. The police agency that received Moreno's reports has not been identified. The courts handling the custody, divorce, and defamation proceedings have not been named in reporting. The status of Miller's defamation lawsuit against Moreno, the restraining order application, and Grisham's new lawsuit against Miller all remain open.
Miller's defense rests on two pillars: no criminal charges, and a DCFS finding that did not substantiate child abuse. Those are real facts that cut in his favor. But they do not address the specific allegations of spousal violence documented in police reports, and they do not explain why a second woman, Grisham, made similar claims years earlier under entirely different circumstances.
Reps. Eric Swalwell and Tony Gonzales both departed Congress amid allegations of misconduct with aides, a reminder that the institution has recently shown it can push members out when the political cost gets high enough. Whether Miller's situation reaches that threshold depends on what the Ethics Committee does, what the courts find, and whether Republican voters in a district Trump won comfortably decide they want someone else carrying the banner.
Allegations are not convictions, and a divorce fight is not a criminal trial. But voters deserve answers, not stonewalling, and right now, the people with the power to demand those answers are looking the other way.
