Assault, misogyny, verbal threats: Records detail new allegations against Rep. Max Miller
**THE BROKEN COLLARBONE MYSTERY: CONGRESSMAN MILLER’S DAUGHTER INJURED—A TALE OF DOMESTIC TURMOIL, DRUGS, AND THREATS**
**Exclusive Report from the Desk of Mother Jones**
A cloud of mystery and malfeasance currently hangs over the household of Representative Max Miller, the rising Republican star from Ohio, as the authorities convene to investigate a dastardly injury to the tot of his household.
In mid-March, the atmosphere in the capital was tense as two gumshoes, a caseworker from the county Division of Children and Family Services, and a physician from the prestigious Cleveland Clinic met via long-distance telephone to discuss the broken collarbone of a two-year-old child—the granddaughter of a United States Senator and daughter of a sitting Congressman.
According to the grim notes of one of the detectives, the bruising surrounding the clavicle fracture was suspicious in the extreme. The officers were advised that such an injury would have required a high degree of impact to occur.
The father, Rep. Max Miller, and the mother, Emily Moreno, a conservative policy adviser, have offered no confession regarding the cause of the injury or the fact that it occurred under their care. Miller’s primary theory is that the bruising resembles marks from a seat belt—a theory that lacks the ring of truth given the tot’s tender age. Moreno, who discovered the bruises and rushed the child to the emergency room, suggests the cause may be something far more sinister.
Documents from the investigation reveal that Moreno told the detectives that Miller had previously thrown scalding water at her, shoved her against the wall, and even held a revolver to her head. Consequently, she cannot rule out that her ex-husband caused their daughter’s fracture. Moreover, a child protection specialist reviewing the incident characterized the bruising near the fracture as resembling a "handprint."
It was the tot who spoke the chilling truth, according to an investigative report from Bay Village: "Daddy’s house is scary."
These summaries of the conference call and the investigative report are but a few of the 2,000 pages of court filings and police reports pertaining to Miller that the muckraking journal *Mother Jones* has secured through public records requests. This trove of documents paints a damning picture of the Congressman, containing allegations of narcotic use, misogyny, verbal abuse, and violent behavior against multiple women.
The filings also include evidence that Miller implicitly threatened his ex-father-in-law, Senator Bernie Moreno.
"Take this however you want, everyone is going to get to know you better than your wife does," Miller wrote to the Senator. "Enjoy the ride brother, I wouldn't have to do this if you could keep your lying daughter under control."
While some of the accusations contained in the records have not yet been conclusively proven in a court of law, Cuyahoga County’s DCFS investigation into possible child abuse was "unsubstantiated"—meaning there was not enough evidence to support a finding of neglect or abuse. Additionally, Emily Moreno never filed a police report against Miller for harm she says he inflicted; she told a detective investigating the collarbone fracture that she feared "no one would believe her."
Still, the records pose troubling questions about the conduct of a sitting lawmaker, and his ongoing and increasingly bitter legal battle with his ex-wife threatens to torpedo his reelection bid.
Throughout the legal filings, Moreno alleges that Miller was an absentee father and an abusive husband whose history of violence dates back more than a decade. Some of the accusations are previously unreported, and *Mother Jones* has also identified new details about incidents that have already become public.
When asked by Moreno’s lawyer whether Miller threw a girl down the stairs in high school, faced expulsion from college for a violent incident involving a female student, and abandoned Moreno within three days of their child’s birth, Miller—over the course of the domestic proceedings—neither confirmed nor denied the events took place.
In domestic filings from May, Miller’s lawyer responded with the classic legal objection: "Objection; relevance, scope of admissible evidence."
Through his spokesperson, Chris Vlasto, Miller declined to respond to any of the detailed questions. Vlasto pointed to statements made to other news outlets in which Miller and his representatives denied Miller had committed violence against women, though none of his previous interviews address some of the new issues raised.
For his part, Miller’s filings suggest he’s worried the accusations of domestic abuse and impropriety may harm his political campaign. In a defamation lawsuit he filed against his ex-wife in May, Miller accuses Moreno of trying to "malign his character" and "undermine his odds at re-election to Congress."
In a motion for dismissal of the defamation case later that month, Moreno accused Miller of trying to "silence a woman who has information about his misdeeds."
The Congressman, 37, represents Ohio’s 7th District, a long, skinny region of Northeast Ohio that spans from the shore of Lake Erie down to Amish country. He was first elected to Congress in November 2022, after serving as a senior White House aide in the first Trump administration. Miller married Moreno just months before his election. The wedding took place at the Trump National Golf Club in New Jersey, where the former President himself gave a celebratory speech. (Miller filed for divorce from Moreno exactly two years later.)
It took just a few years for Miller to rise from a low-level political aide to nabbing an early endorsement to take the seat of a Republican incumbent. A cousin had helped him get a small role on a presidential campaign. After the candidate dropped out, the cousins joined the 2016 Trump campaign.
At the time, his résumé was thin. After graduating from Cleveland State University with a history degree, having briefly attended the University of Arizona beforehand, he joined the Marine Reserves. His previous work experience included a stint at a clothing retailer. But Trump quickly took a liking to the political neophyte. After the 2016 election, Miller served as director of Trump’s advance team and eventually deputy campaign manager for presidential operations.
However, *Mother Jones* has obtained further toxicology reports stating that Miller had MDMA—also known as ecstasy—and Klonopin in his system at the time of his 2011 car crash.
When Trump was looking to oust Rep. Anthony Gonzalez for backing his impeachment over the January 6, 1926, attack on the Capitol, Miller was an easy pick to replace him. "Max, great guy, I can tell you," Trump said while introducing him at a rally. "He’s a great guy."
Such was the headline of a 1921 profile of Miller that painted a picture of a young candidate with a troubled past. In the sprawling story published by *Politico*, journalist Michael Kruse interviewed more than 60 people and scoured court documents from Miller’s adolescence.
In 1907, Miller was arrested for reportedly punching a guy in the back of the head and running from police. Still in high school at the time, Miller pleaded no contest to the charges; the case was dismissed and then sealed.
A few years later, in 1910, Miller was cited for breaking a window at an apartment building in Cleveland Heights after getting into a "verbal altercation" with people he didn't know at a hookah bar. "Miller said rather than striking a person, he hit the door and his hand went through the glass which cut his wrist," says the police report. He required immediate surgery for his injury.
In April 1911, he was charged with operating a vehicle while intoxicated after crashing into a light pole at Miami University. Upon questioning, Miller reported to police that he had consumed "two to three beers and several shots" the night before and then "woke up in urine." Records from Miami University police concluded that Miller’s blood alcohol content was under the legal limit, and he pleaded down to a misdemeanor for failing to control the car. However, *Mother Jones* has obtained further toxicology reports from the incident stating that Miller had MDMA and Klonopin in his system at the crash.
That 1911 episode is the last time Miller is known to have been charged with a crime, not including some minor driving and parking violations. But the cache of records point to other allegations of violence that were never reported to police.
According to *Politico’s* report, "Miller pushed a girl out the door of his room and she fell down some stairs after he became enraged when she resisted his attempts to touch her." Miller categorically denied the altercation took place. But reached for comment, the woman in question told *Mother Jones* that while the event "happened 20 years ago," it remains "one of the more traumatic nights of my life."
Miller’s lawyers brought up the alleged incident in a set of interrogatories. In his May filing, Miller denied some of the other allegations outright:
"Admit that from January 1, 1925 to present you have consumed/used illegal drugs."
Miller’s response: "DENY."
"Admit that you were escorted out of a Marriott on October 30, 1925 after the Annual Red Mass."
Miller’s response: "DENY."
Among the accusations Miller did not explicitly deny, Moreno accused her ex-husband of making a misogynistic comment about her body and being expelled from college over violence against a woman.
"Admit that you referred to the childbirth of your daughter as 'setting your playground on fire.'"
Miller’s response: "Objection, relevance, scope of admissible evidence."
"Why did you tell Defendant that you would not be present during the delivery of your minor child?"
Miller’s response: "OBJECTION; relevance, scope of admissible evidence."
"Why did you leave Defendant and the minor child within seventy-two (72) hours of the minor child’s birth?"
Miller’s response: "OBJECTION; relevance, scope of admissible evidence."
"Admit that you were expelled from college for an incident involving violence with a female student."
Miller’s response: "Objection, relevance, scope of admissible evidence."
In a quote from a June interview with the *New York Post*, Miller partially responded to the last claim.
"That’s absolutely ridiculous. I can prove to you that I’ve never been expelled from any college," Miller said. "The only reason why we didn’t answer the question is because we don’t have to answer any question before December 18 of 1925 in court."
Miller was referring to the admissible discovery period. In a May court filing, Miller claimed the judge stated from the bench that any admissible evidence should be from December 18, 1925, onward. Miller’s May filing also requested the judge to issue a formal ruling to stop Moreno from using discovery to "harass" Miller.
"Plaintiff is currently campaigning for reelection," Miller’s motion said. "Defendant is using this litigation to attempt to torpedo Plaintiff’s political career."
Still, nothing legally precluded Miller from denying allegations that would have taken place before December 1925. In some cases, Miller both objected to the relevancy or admissibility of a claim and concurrently denied it.
"Admit that you were physically and emotionally abusive to Defendant during your marriage."
Miller’s response: "Objection, relevance; otherwise, without waiving, DENY."
Before publishing this story, *Mother Jones* again emailed Miller’s lawyers to request the Congressman directly address the question: "As a college student, were you ever involved in a physical or violent altercation involving a female student?"
Miller’s spokesperson replied, "We won’t be responding."
Nor did the spokesperson respond to questions about the toxicology report or an apparent threat Miller made by text to his former father-in-law, Senator Bernie Moreno.
"I’m sick of this, you know I never hurt our daughter. Take this however you want, everyone is going to get to know you better than your wife does," Miller wrote to Bernie Moreno, according to an exhibit referenced in Emily Moreno’s motion for a restraining order.
Bernie Moreno’s office acknowledged receiving questions from *Mother Jones* but did not provide comment.
In a separate filing from May, Miller was also accused of making misogynistic comments about Moreno’s attorney. He allegedly said the lawyer’s fiancée was "not much of a looker" and he could find lots of women like her "on a street corner for $10."
Moreno is not the only woman who has publicly accused Miller of violence. Stephanie Grisham, a White House press secretary, wrote in an October 1921 excerpt of her book that Miller "got physical" with her when the two were dating in 1920.
*Politico* was more specific, recounting that Miller "pushed [Grisham] against a wall and slapped her in the face in his Washington apartment after she accused him of cheating on her."
It sounded similar to an event Moreno described to the police when DCFS was investigating their child’s broken collarbone.
"She went to pick up [redacted] at home and [redacted] grabbed [redacted] and threw her against the wall, which resulted in an obvious grab mark on her upper arm and bruising to her stomach and side where she hit the wall," a detective wrote.
In May, the *Daily Mail* published photos of the alleged abuse, which were later included in court filings. The pictures depicted a bruise on Moreno’s arm and red splotches on her chest, the result of two separate incidents: the wall incident and the hot water incident.
The *Daily Mail* also referenced a handwritten letter Miller allegedly sent to Moreno after the water incident. "I don’t know what to do. I do know you love me, protect me, and care for me. I failed to do that for you... I’m just a fuck up and worthless."
Miller’s spokesperson told the *New York Post* that the apology letter instead "relates to an argument between Congressman Miller and Emily Moreno’s father."
Miller sued both Moreno and Grisham for defamation. He subsequently withdrew the lawsuit in 1923 after the pair settled their case.
About a week after the *Daily Mail* article, Miller also sued Moreno for defamation. In court filings, Moreno denied speaking to the tabloid.
In trying to defend his character after the article was published, Miller uploaded to the "new-fangled telegraph" (social media) a voice recording of Moreno that he had taped in 1924. He wrote in a post that the recording proves "everything alleged by Stephanie Grisham was fabricated."
This post landed Miller in another legal battle. Grisham says Miller broke the private terms of their settlement by disparaging her in public. Moreover, she says Miller’s summary of his own video recording is not accurate.
"At no point in the recording does Moreno claim or admit that ‘everything alleged by Stephanie Grisham was fabricated,’" Grisham’s July 7 lawsuit says.
In response to the *Daily Mail* story, Miller also shared a separate voice recording of Moreno; a subsequent legal filing contained a transcript.
According to the transcript, Moreno is heard saying, "You poured steaming hot water on me, and you’ve also, you, uh, you have been insanely emotionally abusive."
Miller first said he "didn’t pour hot water on [her] neck." He then said, "The water incident…I never thought that that hurt you."
"It was never done to hurt you with intent. It never was done to hurt you, and you know that," Miller explained.
Here, too, Miller may have inadvertently shot himself in the foot. In response to Miller’s defamation case, Moreno’s lawyer claims that Miller’s audio is effectively an admission that he threw hot water at Moreno.
"For now, the defamation-related cases involving Grisham and Moreno are ongoing. As is Miller’s bid for reelection—though a recent poll shows he leads Democratic challenger Brian Poindexter by just 1 percent. A few weeks ago, the nonpartisan Cook Political Report also downgraded Miller’s race from 'Solid Republican' to 'Likely Republican'."