COLUMBUS – When Emily Moreno’s attorney had to ask a court to protect him from her ex-husband, the filing made an argument the congressman had been working to prevent: that occupying the plaintiff’s chair in multiple lawsuits has not stopped Max Miller from making the legal system feel unsafe for the people opposing him.
U.S. Rep. Max Miller of Ohio faces a new restraining order bid, filed by his ex-wife Emily Moreno on Thursday and aimed not at Miller himself but at his behavior toward her legal team. Moreno alleged he physically grabbed her attorney Andrew Zashin and another lawyer following a recent courthouse hearing, and asked a court to bar the congressman from contacting Zashin going forward, according to CBS News. The pair already has court-ordered restraining orders against each other stemming from their June 2025 divorce. This filing seeks to extend that protection to her counsel.
The week brought Miller a mixed result. A judge signed off on his request to dismiss a domestic violence case he had filed against Moreno in February, after finding Miller “was not under any apparent infirmity and did not appear to have been threatened by or in fear of” Moreno. Weeks after filing that case, Miller had moved to drop it. The dismissal removes one piece of active litigation against his ex-wife but leaves the more serious allegations she has pressed against him fully in place.
Those allegations span several years. In February 2026, a police report documented Moreno’s claim that Miller “threw” her “against the wall,” leaving bruising and grab marks visible to officers. Shortly after, their daughter sustained a mid-right clavicle fracture. Police noted the accompanying bruise “appears to be a handprint.” According to the police report, the daughter told Moreno, “Daddy kill you.” Court documents separately allege that in 2024, Miller threw hot water from a pan of eggs at Moreno after she said she planned to leave him. The same filings allege he previously held a gun to her head.
Miller has denied each of these allegations in court testimony. He said Moreno “is making allegations against me…that never happened,” cited video and text evidence he said would support his account, and characterized Moreno as “not mentally well.” His campaign spokesperson argued that courts would not have permitted joint custody if any of the abuse claims were credible. “If there were credible evidence supporting these outrageous accusations,” the spokesperson said, “that simply would not be the case.”
No criminal charges have been filed against Miller in connection with any incident Moreno described. The custody arrangement stands. The question of what happened inside the marriage remains, in the formal legal sense, unresolved.
The political dimensions are unusual. Emily Moreno is the daughter of Senator Bernie Moreno of Ohio, a Trump loyalist who built one of the president’s most aggressive Senate alliances after defeating Democrat Sherrod Brown in 2024. Senator Moreno and Max Miller operated within the same MAGA political orbit before the marriage collapsed. When pressed this week on whether Republicans should seek to replace Miller on the ticket, Senator Moreno gave the one answer that resolves nothing: “I don’t know.” His office later issued a statement saying his “top priority is the safety and well-being of his daughter and granddaughter” and that he would “do whatever it takes to ensure a just outcome for his family.” He has not called for Miller to withdraw.
Miller’s district is anchored in the Cleveland suburbs, and it is Republican-leaning by most measures, but it sits inside the broader Ohio political battleground that has tested whether Trump-aligned candidates can survive sustained personal controversy. Democrats, watching the legal filings accumulate, see a congressman whose situation has become a liability in a cycle when the House majority is being managed margin by margin. Whether Republicans move to replace Miller before the 2026 primary deadline is a question that has not been answered publicly. Ohio’s congressional and state Republican establishment has been notably quiet.
He is not the first woman to have leveled allegations against Miller. Stephanie Grisham, a former press secretary during Trump’s first term, previously accused Miller of “physical abuse” in a book and a Washington Post op-ed. Miller denied those allegations, filed a defamation lawsuit against Grisham, then moved to dismiss that lawsuit with prejudice. The pattern in the Grisham episode and the one now playing out in Ohio courts is structurally identical: allegations made by a named woman, denials issued, defamation lawsuit filed, lawsuit eventually dropped.
Moreno’s restraining order request signals something about the durability of the legal battle she is in. She alleged in her affidavit that Miller “will continue to harass, threaten, and communicate” with her counsel, and has done so with previous legal teams. That reference to previous legal teams suggests this is not her first attorney whose working relationship with the case has been complicated by the congressman’s conduct in courthouse corridors. The filing does not seek a ruling on the underlying abuse claims. It asks a court to keep a congressional officeholder from making contact with the lawyer who is pressing them.
Whether a judge will grant the request has not been determined. Whether Ohio Republicans will reach their own conclusion before the primary deadline has not been answered. What Thursday’s filing established is that the legal scaffolding around this case is still being built, not dismantled, and that the people at the center of it are not inclined to go quietly.
