Max Miller

CLEVELAND - An ex-girlfriend of U.S. Rep. Max Miller sued him on Tuesday, claiming the Bay Village Republican’s recent public comments about her during a dispute with his ex-wife violate a confidential settlement they reached in a past defamation lawsuit.

The new lawsuit from Stephanie Grisham, who served as White House press secretary and dated Miller during Donald Trump’s first presidential administration, says that she and Miller agreed not to make statements about each other that could be regarded as disparaging in their 2023 settlement of a defamation lawsuit that Miller filed after she publicly accused him of abusing her.

Grisham’s complaint argues that Miller’s public dispute with his former wife, Emily Moreno, has drawn her name back into news coverage of a matter the 2023 settlement was supposed to put to rest. Moreno is the daughter of Republican U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno of Westlake.

“Miller’s defense of himself in litigation with his former spouse is coming at Grisham’s expense since Grisham’s name continues to appear in news articles and other stories describing the allegations that have been lodged against Miller by his former spouse,” the lawsuit says.

The complaint in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court says Miller has violated their confidential settlement at least three times. The central example is a May 7 post on X where Miller wrote he was sharing “a recording from 2024” where Moreno “admits 1. Everything alleged by Stephanie Grisham was fabricated and 2. I have never done anything to harm her.”

The complaint includes a transcript of the 44-second clip and argues it shows nothing of the sort, quoting Moreno telling Miller that “what Stephanie did to you was wrong.” The complaint says at no point in that recording does Moreno say Grisham’s allegations were fabricated.

“Miller’s post on May 7, 2026, objectively disparages Grisham because it expressly accuses her of fabricating events and making false allegations,” the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit also points to a June 5 interview where Miller discussed Grisham’s allegations with Spectrum News1, saying, “my ex-wife was with me every single day during that time of my life in that election, and she, in her own words, will tell you that I never did any of those things.” The complaint calls this a reaffirmation of the claim that Grisham fabricated her account.

A third alleged breach involves confidentiality rather than disparagement. The complaint says filings in Miller’s separate lawsuit against Moreno referenced at least one specific provision of the Grisham settlement that was known only to the parties and their lawyers and wasn’t otherwise public.

The lawsuit assigned to Cuyahoga Common Pleas Judge Emily Hagan asks the court to order Miller to delete the May 7 post, along with any reposts or shares still within his control, and to stop making further public statements about Grisham, the original case or the settlement itself.

It also seeks a declaration that Miller breached a confidential agreement, along with liquidated damages, attorney’s fees and an injunction barring him from further violations. A spokesman for Miller said he won’t be commenting on Grisham’s lawsuit.

Miller and Moreno divorced last year and are fighting over custody of their daughter. After Moreno publicly accused Miller of abusing her, he filed a defamation lawsuit against her and her attorney, alleging they falsely portrayed him as a domestic abuser to multiple media outlets.

Moreno filed legal papers that say he physically abused her during their marriage and called his defamation lawsuit an effort to “silence and intimidate” her. It invoked the Uniform Public Expression Protection Act — known as UPEPA — an anti-SLAPP law which Ohio adopted last year to shield people from lawsuits designed to punish them for speaking out on matters of public concern.