Ohio Rep. Max Miller files defamation lawsuit against ex-wife

Ryan Tarinelli, CQ-Roll Call on May 14, 2026

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WASHINGTON — Rep. Max Miller filed a lawsuit against his ex-wife and her legal team in Ohio, saying they engaged in a “defamatory campaign” against the Republican lawmaker to falsely cast him as a violent and abusive father and in part hurt his chances at reelection.

The complaint, filed Wednesday in a county-level court in Ohio, lists his ex-wife, Emily Moreno, and her attorneys as defendants in the civil litigation. Emily Moreno is the daughter of GOP Sen. Bernie Moreno.

The lawsuit says Emily Moreno’s legal team published “false and defamatory statements” about Miller that wrongly accused him of being a violent and abusive father. Statements from the legal team appeared in several news outlets, the litigation states.

According to the litigation, Miller and Emily Moreno have been “embroiled in litigation over custody of their minor child” and multiple allegations made against him in custody litigation are “entirely unfounded.”

The lawsuit also points to an article in the Daily Mail, which, according to the litigation, included allegations that Miller threw a pot of boiling water at Emily Moreno in 2024, some of which hit her in the chest.

The litigation says the congressman “has never hurled boiling water on Moreno or otherwise battered her, nor has he ever apologized for such acts that he never committed.”

Miller, according to the litigation, has suffered “actual damages in the form of lost business opportunities, reduced campaign contributions to aid his reelection campaign to Congress,” and other harms.

The congressman’s litigation stipulates he is asking for compensatory damages “in an amount to be proven at trial,” but also an amount above $25,000.

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