The House Ethics Committee opened an investigation in August into whether Rep. Max Miller of Ohio "may have engaged in domestic violence and abuse or illegal drug use," in violation of the House's own conduct rules.

On Monday, August 31, 2026, CNN's Manu Raju asked the Speaker of the House whether he supports Miller's reelection campaign.

Mike Johnson said yes.

"He has been a great member of Congress," Johnson said. "He has some issues in his personal life he's working through. The House Ethics Committee is looking into that and any implications it may have." He added that he would "let due process play out."

What "some issues in his personal life" refers to

Max Miller's ex-wife, Emily Moreno, has accused him of hurling scalding hot water at her, holding a gun to her head, and breaking their 2-year-old daughter's collarbone. The two divorced last year and have been in a custody fight over the child.

Miller denies all of it. He sued his ex-wife for defamation in May, and says he filed his own paperwork to open an ethics investigation to clear his name.

Emily Moreno's father is Bernie Moreno, the Republican senator from Ohio. He is one of several Republicans who have called on Miller to resign. Last month he described what his family has been through:

"My daughter lives in constant fear of this man, not like something that's existential, but deeply in her heart, she fears what this guy is capable of. You can't fathom what that makes me feel like when the dad's number one job is to protect your kids."

Moreno said his family had gone through "the seventh level of hell," and asked Miller to "seek professional help to end the clear pattern of abuse he has left in his wake."

That is the record the Speaker of the House looked at before calling Miller a great member of Congress.

"Due process" is doing work it cannot do

Johnson's answer has a defensible-sounding structure. There is an investigation. Let it finish. Do not prejudge.

Except that is not what he did. He was not asked whether Miller should be expelled or punished. He was asked whether he supports Miller's campaign — a political endorsement, entirely within his discretion, requiring no finding of fact from anyone.

He could have said the honest version of "due process": I'm not going to weigh in on his race while the Ethics Committee is working. Instead he volunteered a character reference.

And the timing is not neutral, either. The Ethics Committee observes a 60-day blackout before an election, which begins September 4. The committee is not expected to report anything before November. "Let due process play out" means, in practice, that voters go to the polls with nothing.

The rest of the party is not united behind this

The striking thing about Johnson's answer is how much company Miller has lost.

Republican senators called on him to resign. A conservative group called him unfit to serve. A poll had him down 14. Miller's response to all of it was to loan his own campaign $1 million and stay on the ballot. Cook Political Report has since moved Ohio's 7th District from "likely Republican" to "toss up."

His own former father-in-law, a sitting Republican senator, wants him gone.

Against that, Johnson is not "letting the process play out." He is picking a side in a fight where much of his own party has already picked the other one.

He is the third Republican leader to take this position, and the pattern is the point

Johnson is not alone, and that is what makes this worth writing down rather than filing as one bad answer on a rope line.

Rep. Jim Jordan, asked on CNN whether Miller should resign, called it "a family matter" and said he hopes Miller wins — weeks after going hard at a Democrat facing similar accusations.

Ohio's Republican nominee for governor, Vivek Ramaswamy, was caught on leaked audio backing Miller "up and down the ticket," explaining that Republican control of the House comes first: "If we compromise that, we're done."

Three Republican leaders, three versions of the same answer. Ramaswamy's is the only one that says the quiet part: the seat matters more.

The party that spent years telling America it stands for family values has settled on a rule for its own members. When the accused is one of ours and the seat is a toss-up, the allegations become a personal matter and the process becomes a reason to wait.

What the record shows

On August 31, 2026, House Speaker Mike Johnson publicly endorsed the reelection of Max Miller, a member under House Ethics Committee investigation for possible domestic violence and abuse, calling him a "great member of Congress" with "some issues in his personal life." The accusations — scalding water, a gun to the head, a 2-year-old's fractured collarbone — come from Miller's ex-wife, whose father is a sitting Republican senator who says she lives in constant fear of him and has asked Miller to resign. The Ethics Committee's pre-election blackout begins September 4, so its findings are not expected to reach voters before they vote.

Source

Sarah Davis, "Johnson says he supports Max Miller's reelection bid: 'Great member of Congress'", The Hill, September 1, 2026. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.