Ohio Congressman Max Miller is now tangled in two separate court fights at the same time — one with his ex-wife, one with his ex-girlfriend. Both women say he abused them. He denies all of it. And now one of them says he broke a legal promise to keep quiet just to defend himself.

That's the picture painted by new reporting from the Ohio Capital Journal (originally by WEWS reporter Morgan Trau) on July 14, 2026. Miller declined to comment. He has always denied every allegation of abuse, and he has never had criminal charges filed against him.

But two women, in two different courtrooms, are telling a strikingly similar story about the man who represents Ohio's 7th District in Congress.

The ex-girlfriend's lawsuit

Stephanie Grisham was Donald Trump's White House press secretary. She dated Max Miller in 2019 and 2020. In a 2021 Washington Post op-ed, she wrote that her relationship with a fellow White House staffer "turned abusive" — that he was "physical" with her and had "anger issues and a violent streak." She never used Miller's name, but everyone knew she meant him; Politico had earlier reported that Miller shoved Grisham against a wall and slapped her. Miller called the op-ed libelous and sued her for defamation.

That case ended in a deal. Miller dropped the lawsuit, and the two signed a nondisclosure agreement — a promise not to say anything about each other that could be seen as "disparaging."

Now Grisham is suing him again, this time in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas. Her argument: Miller broke that agreement by publicly accusing her of lying about the abuse.

"The settlement included certain promises that Congressman Miller made to our client Stephanie Grisham, and those promises were broken," her attorney Marc Dann said.

The ex-wife's case

In a different courtroom, Miller is fighting his ex-wife, Emily Moreno — the daughter of Ohio's own Republican U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno. She has accused Miller of physical and emotional abuse and drug use. The two have been locked in a bitter divorce and custody fight since 2023.

Miller denied her allegations and, once again, sued for defamation. His own court filing gives you a sense of just how ugly the accusations are. He argued that he never "committed battery on Moreno by hurling boiling water on her — in front of their minor daughter." As part of her response, Moreno provided photo evidence of bruises on her body.

Her attorney, Subodh Chandra, put the case in blunt terms in a court filing:

"This lawsuit is the latest chapter in Congressman Miller's well-established pattern of wielding his power and his fortune as weapons to crush his critics, intimidate his accusers, and silence the victims of his own misconduct."

Moreno is now trying to get Miller's defamation suit thrown out under a new Ohio law meant to stop powerful people from using lawsuits to silence "free speech on matters of public concern." Miller's team, for its part, says Moreno and her lawyer are running a "defamatory campaign" to wreck his reelection and "falsely portray him as a violent and abusive father and husband." He has also accused his ex-wife of mental health problems.

Using one case to break the promise in the other

Here's where the two fights collide. To defend himself against Moreno, Miller went public. He posted an audio clip on social media and wrote that Moreno admits "Everything alleged by Stephanie Grisham was fabricated." In a TV interview with Spectrum News 1, he said the abuse allegations aren't true.

The problem, Grisham's side says, is that Miller signed a legal document promising not to talk about her or her allegations at all. A Case Western Reserve University criminal law professor, Mike Benza, said Miller's public comments may have crossed the line.

"He's not supposed to say anything about his relationship with her or about the nature of the allegations or her credibility," Benza said.

Benza also had a sharp point about why powerful people reach for these agreements in the first place: an NDA "is a tool that is generally used by people who have power, who can use either their position or their financial status to hide the underlying issues that are going on."

This isn't the first credibility problem

For anyone following Max Miller, a fight over his honesty and his temper is not new.

In June 2025, Miller claimed a driver hurled antisemitic threats at him in a road-rage incident on an Ohio highway. But dashcam footage and Tesla driving data contradicted key parts of his account. The other driver pleaded guilty only to misdemeanor charges — not the serious ones Miller had alleged — and is now suing Miller for defamation. Miller also has a personal record of charges between 2007 and 2011, including assault and disorderly conduct, most resolved through diversion programs.

So the pattern in these new lawsuits — deny everything, sue the accuser, lean on his money and his office — fits a man who has repeatedly asked the public to take his word over the evidence.

Who's standing with him

Some Democrats have already called on Miller to step down. As of the Ohio Capital Journal's reporting, no prominent Republicans had. One GOP strategist waved the whole thing away: "Husbands and wives sometimes shout and yell at each other, and those kind of things," Terry Casey said, predicting it won't hurt Miller's reelection because voters "mostly vote for what's in their interest and what affects them and their wallets."

Ohio voters in the 7th District will get to decide whether they agree. As Grisham's attorney put it: "Certainly, it's unusual for there to be two different relationships in a very public way, both of which there are allegations of domestic violence."

Every abuse allegation described here is a claim made by Grisham or Moreno in court filings or writing; Miller denies all of them and has not been criminally charged.

Source

Reporting by Morgan Trau for the Ohio Capital Journal / News5Cleveland (WEWS).