Max Miller

U.S. Rep. Max Miller is suing his ex-wife Emily Moreno for defamation for allegations that he abused her.

Moreno's attorneys claim Moreno's allegations are protected speech and argue the lawsuit should be dismissed.

A Cleveland judge must rule on the dismissal request within 60 days.

U.S. Rep. Max Miller's alleged abuse of his ex-wife Emily Moreno took center stage in a court hearing in Cleveland this week.

Miller is suing Moreno for defamation, claiming she made untrue statements about him throwing hot water on her in a national tabloid article.

Moreno, though, says she didn't provide the information in the article and – even if she did – that speech would be protected.

Moreno's attorneys are seeking to dismiss Miller's defamation suit under Ohio's new anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) law that protects people from lawsuits that involve them speaking about matters of public interest.

"What the General Assembly was doing was saying, 'We want to air on the side of the protection of free speech,'" Subodh Chandra, one of Moreno's attorneys, said during a Sept. 15 hearing in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court.

Miller's attorneys, though, claim that Moreno was behind the May 7 article in The Daily Mail and that they have a legitimate defamation claim against her. This was among the first of numerous articles in national and local media publications about the abuse claims.

"This is a knowing falsification case," said Alejandro Brito, one of Miller's attorneys who has represented President Donald Trump in several defamation lawsuits. "She knew what actually happened – and stated the complete opposite."

Moreno, who at times became emotional, attended the hearing in person, while Miller, who was in Washington, D.C, appeared virtually. He had to leave the hearing at one point to cast a vote. Neither spoke during the hearing, with the attorneys presenting their arguments to Judge Joy Kennedy.

Kennedy said she will consider the attorneys' arguments, as well as their written briefs, and decide whether the lawsuit should be dismissed. Under the anti-SLAPP law, her ruling must be made within 60 days.

That means her decision could potentially be made before the Nov. 3 election in which Miller is attempting to hold onto his 7th Congressional District seat, which includes southern and western Cuyahoga County, all of Medina and Wayne counties and part of northern Holmes County.

Miller, who was elected to Congress in 2022, faces serious competition from Brian Poindexter, a Democrat and Brook Park councilman, in a race that is seen as key to deciding which party controls Congress.

Miller and Moreno are in a contentious custody dispute

Miller and Moreno, the daughter of U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno, got married in 2022 and had their daughter in November 2023.

Miller, though, filed for divorce in Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Court less than a year later in August 2024.

The couple reached a settlement in June 2025 that included shared custody of their daughter, who is now 2. The couple, though, have gone back and forth with accusations against each other in the custody case and are each seeking sole custody.

Moreno has claimed in police and court records that Miller was abusive toward her both during and after their marriage. These claims have been widely reported by numerous media, including the Daily Mail, TMZ, the New York Times, CNN and the Beacon Journal.

Miller, who denies being abusive to either Moreno or their daughter, has faced no criminal charges.

Miller filed the defamation lawsuit May 13, claiming that Moreno made allegations against him in their ongoing custody dispute, then "engaged in a defamatory campaign against (him) to malign his character, undermine his odds at reelection to Congress, and falsely portray him as a violent and abusive husband and father."

Moreno's attorney seeks dismissal under Ohio's new anti-SLAPP law

Chandra asked that the defamation suit be dismissed on May 27, arguing that this falls under the anti-SLAPP law, which is also called the Uniform Public Expression Protection Act.

"This is the latest example of Congressman Miller seeking to silence and intimidate a woman who has information about his behavior," Chandra, a well-known civil attorney in Cleveland, said at the time. "The First Amendment and Ohio law rightly don't allow a public official to weaponize the courts to punish a victim for speech on a matter of public concern."

The lawsuit against Moreno focuses on The Daily Mail article that described an alleged incident in June 2024 in which Miller threw a pot of boiling water on Moreno. The article included photos that Moreno supposedly took of herself showing her injuries and a handwritten apology letter that Miller allegedly wrote to her after the incident.

Moreno denied speaking to The Daily Mail in an affidavit, and she isn't quoted in the article, which attributes the information to "multiple sources" who aren't named.

Ohio became the 10th state to adopt an anti-SLAPP law in April 2025. Courts in only a few counties, including Cuyahoga, have dismissed lawsuits under the law, according to court records.

Moreno said in the affidavit that she told Miller she was leaving him, and he threw hot water on her from a pan he used to cook eggs. She said she fell to the floor, and he sprayed hot water at her from the sink sprayer. She said this was "one of the final straws" of their marriage.

Miller said in an affidavit that he sprayed water from a sink sprayer at Moreno but didn't injure her. He described this as "horseplay."

“I did not throw, hurl, or pour a pot, pan, or any other container of boiling at Moreno, and I did not burn her,” he said.

Miller admitted in the affidavit that he wrote the apology letter but said it didn't pertain to the water incident but to a dispute involving Bernie Moreno.

Alleged abuse photos become a focus during hearing

Both sets of attorneys called attention to the photos that allegedly show Moreno's injuries, though they did so for different reasons.

Chandra said Miller described what happened between him and Moreno in the water incident as horseplay but pointed to a photograph of Moreno that shows redness on her chest.

"Does that look like horseplay?" he asked.

Chandra provided the judge with color copies of the photographs that purportedly show Moreno's injuries, which had already been provided in court filings.

The photos allegedly show injuries Moreno sustained in the water-throwing incident as well as another incident in February in which she claims Miller threw her against a wall during a custody exchange, leaving a grab mark on her upper arm and a bruise on her stomach. Moreno claims both incidents happened in front of their daughter, according to police reports.

"We have the photos – and this is not normal behavior," Chandra said.

Brito said several of the photos show Emily Moreno's name in the lower left-hand corner, along with a copyright symbol. He pointed to this as an example of her being connected to The Daily Mail article's publication.

"Who else could the photo come from?" Brito asked. "It has her name in the photograph."

Chandra, though, said this doesn't mean that Moreno provided the photos or authorized someone else to provide them.

At the end of the hearing, Kennedy asked to see the photos again on the projection screen. Aaron Minc, one of Miller's attorneys, went through the article, and zoomed in on each photograph's credit line.

Kennedy also asked the attorneys to provide her with a color copy of The Daily Mail article. She said the black-and-white copy she received with court filings was illegible.

Moreno's attorney is dismissed from lawsuit

Miller's defamation lawsuit also originally targeted Andrew Zashin, Moreno's attorney in the custody dispute, and his Cleveland law firm. Miller claimed Zashin made untrue statements about him to the media and then republished those comments on the firm's website.

Monica Salsalone, Zashin's attorney in the defamation lawsuit, said her client was protected under litigation privilege, which allows attorneys to comment on pending litigation.

Zashin and his firm were dismissed from the lawsuit on July 20, though this was done without prejudice, which means it could potentially be refiled, according to court records.

Miller is being sued by an ex-girlfriend whom he sued for defamation

Miller is being sued by Stephanie Grisham, his ex-girlfriend, whom he filed a defamation lawsuit against in 2021 after she made abuse claims against him.

Grisham, who served at the White House with Miller under Trump's first administration, claims Miller violated the terms of a settlement they reached when he made negative statements against her during the recent coverage of Moreno's abuse claims.

The settlement forbade Grisham and Miller from making disparaging remarks against each other and included a $1 million penalty for each breach of this prohibition.

After a recent hearing, Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Emily Hagan granted preliminary injunctions against Miller and Moreno that forbade them from making further negative comments about each other. She also ordered them to remove remarks they made on X that are the subject of the lawsuit.

A telephone conference in this case is scheduled for Oct. 20.