Ohio Congressman Max Miller is fighting two court battles at once — one with his ex-wife, one with his ex-girlfriend. Both women say he abused them. He denies all of it.

Now the record has gotten much bigger. Mother Jones obtained more than 2,000 pages of court filings and police reports through public records requests, and published them on July 18, 2026. They include a child protective services investigation, a threat to a sitting U.S. senator, and a toxicology report from a 15-year-old car crash.

Miller declined to answer any of Mother Jones' detailed questions. His spokesperson, Chris Vlasto, replied: "We won't be responding."

A note before we go further: the most serious allegation here — that Miller's 2-year-old daughter was abused — was investigated and ruled unsubstantiated. Cuyahoga County's Division of Children and Family Services did not find enough evidence to support a finding of abuse or neglect. Miller has never been criminally charged in connection with any of these allegations. We're reporting what the records say, and what they don't.

The investigation into a 2-year-old's broken collarbone

In February 2026, Miller's 2-year-old daughter — who is also Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno's granddaughter — was found to have a broken collarbone.

Her mother, Emily Moreno, discovered bruises on the child and took her to an emergency room. That triggered an investigation.

In mid-March, two detectives, a county DCFS caseworker, and a Cleveland Clinic physician met over Zoom to try to work out what happened. The detective who wrote the summary put it this way:

"The bruising surrounding the clavicle fracture made the injury suspicious."

Someone on that call, according to the summary, "advised the injury would have required a high degree of impact to occur." A child protection specialist reviewing the case described the bruising near the fracture as resembling a "handprint."

Neither parent said they knew what caused it, and neither said it happened while the child was in their care. Miller's theory was that the bruising looked like seat belt marks.

Moreno told detectives she couldn't rule out that Miller caused it — because, she said, he had previously thrown hot water at her, shoved her, and held a gun to her head.

According to a Bay Village, Ohio, investigative report on the February injury, Moreno recounted something her daughter had said:

"Daddy's house is scary."

The county's investigation closed as "unsubstantiated." There was not enough evidence to support a finding of abuse or neglect. Nobody has been charged. That is where the matter formally stands.

One detail from the records explains part of why so little of this ever reached police: Emily Moreno never filed a police report over the harm she says Miller did to her. She told the detective investigating her daughter's fracture that she feared "no one would believe her."

The text to his ex-father-in-law

Sen. Bernie Moreno is Emily Moreno's father — and Max Miller's Republican colleague. Court filings referenced in Moreno's motion for a restraining order include a text Miller sent him:

"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. Enjoy the ride brother, I wouldn't have to do this if you could keep your lying daughter under control."

Bernie Moreno's office acknowledged Mother Jones' questions but didn't comment. In May, responding to Miller's defamation suit against his daughter, the senator said his "only comment" was that he loved his daughter and that her safety and his granddaughter's were his top priority. He has not called for Miller to resign.

The questions Miller wouldn't answer

In the custody case, Moreno's lawyers sent Miller written interrogatories — formal questions answered under penalty of perjury. A party can object instead of answering, and objecting doesn't imply guilt.

Miller flatly denied some:

• Using illegal drugs from January 2025 to the present: "DENY."
• Being escorted out of a Marriott on October 30, 2025: "DENY."
• Being physically and emotionally abusive during the marriage: "Objection, relevance; otherwise, without waiving, DENY."

On others, he objected rather than deny:

• That he was expelled from college over an incident involving violence with a female student: "Objection, relevance, scope of admissible evidence."
• That he pushed a female classmate down a flight of stairs in high school: "OBJECTION."
• That he referred to his daughter's birth as "setting your playground on fire": "Objection."
• Why he left Moreno and their newborn within 72 hours of the birth: "OBJECTION."

Miller later told the New York Post the expulsion claim was "absolutely ridiculous" and that he could prove he'd never been expelled — explaining that he didn't answer because of the case's discovery cut-off date. As Mother Jones notes, nothing legally stopped him from denying those older allegations; in other instances he objected and denied in the same breath.

The woman involved in the high school incident — which Politico reported in 2021, and which Miller categorically denied at the time — spoke to Mother Jones this month. Twenty years on, she said it remains "one of the more traumatic nights of my life."

The 2011 crash, revisited

In April 2011, Miller crashed into a light pole at Miami University of Ohio and was charged with operating a vehicle while intoxicated. He pleaded down to a misdemeanor for failing to control the car. At the time, his attorney told Politico that "a blood test conclusively established that Mr. Miller was not impaired."

Mother Jones obtained further toxicology reports from that incident. They state that Miller had MDMA (ecstasy) and Klonopin in his system.

That 2011 case is the last time Miller is known to have been charged with a crime, aside from minor traffic violations.

The hot water recording

Miller has repeatedly tried to clear his name by releasing audio of his ex-wife — and it keeps backfiring.

After the Daily Mail published photos of alleged injuries in May, Miller shared a recording with the New York Post. In the transcript later filed in court, Moreno says: "You poured steaming hot water on me, and you've also, you, uh, you have been insanely emotionally abusive."

Miller first says he "didn't pour hot water on [her] neck." Then:

"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."

Moreno's lawyer now cites that recording against him: "It is true or substantially true that Congressman Miller soaked her with hot water. Miller admits it in his own audio recording."

There's also a handwritten letter Miller allegedly sent Moreno after the water incident in June 2024, pictured in court filings:

"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. It's eating me alive. I love you even if you think I don't. I love you so much. I'm so sorry. I'm just a fuck up and worthless."

Miller's spokesperson told the New York Post that the letter "relates to an argument between Congressman Miller and Emily Moreno's father."

The two lawsuits

The ex-girlfriend. Stephanie Grisham was Donald Trump's White House press secretary and dated Miller in 2019 and 2020. In an October 2021 Washington Post excerpt of her book, she described a relationship with a fellow White House staffer that turned abusive; Politico had already reported that Miller shoved Grisham against a wall and slapped her. Miller sued her for defamation, then withdrew it in 2023 when they settled and signed a mutual non-disparagement agreement.

Grisham is now suing him again. Her July 7 lawsuit says Miller broke that settlement by posting on X that a recording of Moreno proved "everything alleged by Stephanie Grisham was fabricated."

It doesn't. In the 43-second clip, Moreno says "what Stephanie did to you is wrong." She never says Grisham lied about being abused. As Grisham's suit puts it: "At no point in the recording does Moreno claim or admit that 'everything alleged by Stephanie Grisham was fabricated.'"

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

Case Western Reserve 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 also noted why powerful people reach for these agreements — 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."

The ex-wife. Miller sued Emily Moreno for defamation in May, alleging she leaked to the Daily Mail to damage his campaign. Moreno denies talking to the tabloid. Her attorney, Subodh Chandra, wrote:

"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 trying to get the suit thrown out under Ohio's new anti-SLAPP law, accusing Miller of trying to "silence a woman who has information about his misdeeds." Miller's own filing is candid about the stakes: "Plaintiff is currently campaigning for reelection. Defendant is using this litigation to attempt to torpedo Plaintiff's political career."

His party has nothing to say

Rolling Stone reported on July 27 that Republican leadership has simply declined to engage. Asked about the allegations against Miller and Rep. Cory Mills, House Speaker Mike Johnson brushed it off:

"The key word there is 'allegation.'"

That standard has not been applied evenly. The same stretch of 2026 saw Reps. Eric Swalwell and Tony Gonzales resign over misconduct scandals, and Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner suspend his campaign over sexual assault allegations — a case Republicans have been happy to talk about at length.

This isn't the first credibility problem

In June 2025, Miller claimed a driver hurled antisemitic threats at him in a road-rage incident on an Ohio highway. 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 alleged — and is now suing him for defamation.

The pattern across all of it is consistent: deny, sue the accuser, lean on his money and his office, and ask the public to take his word over the documents.

Where this leaves Ohio's 7th District

Voters get the final say, and it's close. A recent poll has Miller leading Democratic challenger Brian Poindexter by just 1 percent, and the nonpartisan Cook Political Report has downgraded the race from "Solid Republican" to "Likely Republican."

Some Democrats have called on Miller to resign. No prominent Republicans have. One GOP strategist, Terry Casey, waved it all away: "Husbands and wives sometimes shout and yell at each other, and those kind of things," predicting voters "mostly vote for what's in their interest and what affects them and their wallets."

Ohio voters can decide whether 2,000 pages of police reports and court filings count as something that affects them. We deserve better.

Every allegation described here comes from court filings, police reports, or public statements by Emily Moreno, Stephanie Grisham, or other named individuals. Max Miller denies wrongdoing and has not been criminally charged in connection with any of them. The Cuyahoga County child abuse investigation was closed as unsubstantiated, meaning investigators did not find sufficient evidence of abuse or neglect.

Sources

Primary reporting by Abby Vesoulis for Mother Jones (July 18, 2026), with additional reporting from Rolling Stone and Morgan Trau for the Ohio Capital Journal / News5Cleveland (WEWS).