Emily Moreno’s domestic violence lawyer asked a court on Thursday for a restraining order against Max Miller, citing harassment and threats aimed at the legal team. The filing adds another legal step in the dispute between the Ohio congressman and his ex-wife.
Moreno and Miller were married from 2022 to 2024 and have a 2-year-old daughter. Police reports obtained by ABC News say Moreno told police that Miller “threw her against the wall, which resulted in an obvious grab mark on her upper arm,” “held a gun to her head,” and said, “Daddy kill you.”
Max Miller and Emily Moreno
Miller has denied abusing his wife or daughter. In a defamation lawsuit, he described the accusations as “a repeated pattern” meant “to ruin my reputation, gain an edge in custody and litigation matters, and seek revenge.”
The restraining-order request lands while Miller is seeking reelection in Ohio's 7th District, which is described as a safe Republican seat. The allegations have already drawn calls from some Democratic members of Congress for an ethics investigation and resignation.
ABC News reports
ABC News reported that Moreno also told police Miller had previously thrown hot water on her and that her daughter received physical injuries while in his care. The Department of Children and Family Services did not find evidence to substantiate child abuse allegations, according to records released in court filings, and Miller was never charged with a crime.
The broader dispute also overlaps with Miller’s separate fight with Stephanie Grisham. She said in a 2021 memoir that she had been physically abused by her partner while working at the White House, later identified Miller in a Washington Post op-ed, and said White House officials failed to act. Miller denied her allegations and sued her for defamation in 2023 while running for Congress, and the two later reached a confidential settlement.
Grisham is now suing Miller for violating the terms of that settlement by discussing the case in his denials of Moreno’s allegations. In May, Miller posted that Bernie Moreno continued to fund and enable his daughter’s campaign, while a spokesperson for Bernie Moreno said his “top priority is the safety and well-being of his daughter and granddaughter.”
The Thursday filing does not lay out the court’s next step, but it adds legal pressure as the same family dispute moves through the restraining-order request, the defamation case, and the separate settlement fight.
