New police videos reveal Rep. Max Miller’s ex-wife detailing allegations of abuse, which he denies

Summary

• New police videos contain Ohio Rep. Max Miller’s ex-wife Emily Moreno detailing allegations of abuse against him.
• Moreno alleges Miller held a gun to her and threw her against a wall.
• Miller denies all allegations and has filed a defamation lawsuit against Moreno and her attorney.

AI-generated summary was reviewed by a CNN editor.

In new police videos obtained by CNN, the ex-wife of Ohio Rep. Max Miller emotionally describes abuse allegations against him, including an incident in which she says he held a gun to her. Miller, in separate police interviews, denies he ever abused her, calls his ex-wife “manipulative” and alleges she struggles with mental illness.

The videos, among several recordings obtained by CNN through a public records request, offer fresh details in a contentious legal battle that now includes a custody fight, defamation lawsuit and restraining order between Miller and his ex-wife, Emily Moreno, the daughter of Ohio’s Republican senior Senator Bernie Moreno.

The newly released recordings are from an interview Emily Moreno had with police in Bay Village, Ohio, in February as detectives investigated how her and Miller’s two-year-old daughter suffered a broken collarbone.

No charges were ultimately filed by prosecutors in connection with their daughter’s injuries and the police department told CNN there are no other open investigations involving Miller or Moreno.

Although police redacted her face from the recording, Moreno can be heard crying as she described the alleged gun incident and also recounted how Miller allegedly threw her against a wall during a custody exchange earlier this year.

In video redacted by police, Emily Moreno says ex-husband Rep. Max Miller once held a gun to her

In video redacted by police, Emily Moreno says ex-husband Rep. Max Miller once held a gun to her

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In a lengthy on-camera interview with CNN, Miller reiterated his denial that he ever abused his ex-wife and said her claim that he held a gun to her was a “complete fabrication.”

“I am fighting to clear my name,” he said. “And that will come out in the truth.”

Moreno declined an interview with CNN. Her attorney Andrew Zashin, in a statement, said “that the court issued a restraining order to both parties and Emily is going to abide by it.”

In the wake of the February police interviews, Moreno further detailed abuse claims amid their ongoing custody dispute, including alleging in court documents and testimony that the congressman once threw hot water at her during their marriage. After those reports surfaced in the media, Miller filed a defamation suit against his ex-wife and her lawyer.

Last week, a judge issued a restraining order to both Moreno and Miller ordering them not to “threaten, abuse, annoy or interfere” with each other, among other restrictions.

The combative family dispute is playing out against the backdrop of MAGA politics in Ohio and has become an issue in Miller’s campaign for reelection in what has been considered a solidly Republican congressional seat. While Miller won his primary unopposed on May 5, he faces off in November against Democrat Brian Poindexter, a union iron worker.

“This isn’t going to affect my chances at reelection,” Miller told CNN. “I continue to talk to anybody who would like to talk to me. I’m not sitting here running away.”

The police video recordings, which redact Miller and Moreno’s faces but include audio of their interviews, shed light on some of the abuse claims that have roiled their custody dispute and depict both Moreno and Miller describing their fractured relationship in their own words.

CNN reporter asks Rep. Max Miller to respond to abuse allegations

CNN reporter asks Rep. Max Miller to respond to abuse allegations

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Moreno and Miller, who was a senior advisor for President Donald Trump during his first term, were married in 2022 in a ceremony at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, and filed for divorce two years later. Their divorce was finalized in a settlement in 2025.

Police began investigating whether there was evidence of child abuse in February after the couple’s young daughter’s collarbone injury. According to the police report obtained by CNN, officers were connected with a Child Protection Specialist familiar with the family’s situation.

In her police interview, Moreno told authorities her fear of Miller led her to leave the marriage.

“I was just, like, scared of him a lot, and that’s why I left the house and why I moved out,” Moreno said.

During the interview, Moreno detailed two specific incidents, including one encounter on New Year’s Eve in which she alleged that Miller put a gun on her as she was changing their infant daughter’s diaper.

“I was changing the baby, and I couldn’t do that with the lights off. So I had to turn the light on, and that made him upset,” she said.

She said Miller yelled at her.

“So when does the gun come into play?” the officer asked.

“When I’m changing,” Moreno said.

“And what does he do?”

“Holds it on me,” Moreno said.

When the officer asked Moreno if she could show where Miller held the gun on her, she began crying. A police incident report released to the media indicated the gun was allegedly held to her head.

Moreno told police that while she had told her therapist about the incident, she did not report it to authorities at the time because she feared no one would believe her.

When police in the interview asked her if she then wanted to report it, she declined.

Miller, in the interview with CNN, said the incident never happened and that he stores his guns in a locked safe.

“I don’t have a weapon that’s even easily accessible in my home like that. Every single weapon that I have is locked up,” he said.

In her interview with police, Moreno said after the birth of their daughter, her relationship with Miller worsened and Miller would get “mad” when the baby was crying.

She told police that Miller seldom wanted to spend time with her and the baby, saying he would often go into his bedroom.  Moreno said she never saw him being abusive with their child.

In video redacted by police, Rep. Max Miller describes ex-wife’s interactions with him to police

In video redacted by police, Rep. Max Miller describes ex-wife’s interactions with him to police

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Miller denied the characterization that he wasn’t engaged with his family, telling CNN, “What’s sad is you have a young woman who really does suffer from a mental illness, that people continue to enable and give a platform when what they need to do is they need to extend a hand.” In his February police interview, Miller said of Moreno that “she has a history, and she was diagnosed bipolar a long time ago.”

Moreno’s attorney has denied that Moreno has a bipolar disorder diagnosis. In a statement to CNN, her spokesperson said that Miller “is making accusations without evidence.”

Prompted by officers, Moreno also described another incident when she was allegedly abused by Miller in February.

Moreno, who was living separately from Miller at the time, said when she arrived at Miller’s house to bring the child to an afternoon birthday party, her daughter was still in her pajamas. Moreno said Miller got upset “because I was just taking away his parenting time,” and that “he threw me into the wall and I fell on the ground.”

After the incident, Moreno said she and her daughter went to the birthday party.

Moreno also detailed the allegation during a court hearing last month, telling the court that “when I got to the house, that’s when Max and I were talking about his anger toward the birthday party and the pickup times were different, and that’s when he trashed me and pushed me and threw me to the ground.”

Miller has denied this allegation. In the CNN interview, he said that Moreno texted him in the days afterward to invite him to lunch and other social interactions. He shared images of the texts in that exchange. He also pointed to Ring camera video that he has posted online that he said was from the day of the incident and appeared to show Moreno leaving his home without incident.

Asked in the court hearing about the video and if she agreed she did not “display any signs of distress,” Moreno responded, “with all due with respect, you have no idea what’s going on in my mind.”

During the February interviews, police did not ask Miller to respond directly to Moreno’s allegations of abuse, though Miller and his lawyers did return to talk to police weeks later to allege that Moreno was making false statements.

CNN’s review of court documents and police records show the legal feud between Moreno and Miller escalating in the months after the February police investigation into their daughter’s injury.

On February 27, Miller requested and was granted a protective order, arguing that he was feeling “harassed and that she is stalking his schedule.”

On March 5, Moreno filed a request in court to reopen their custody agreement, alleging that Miller had “conducted dangerous physical behavior” around their daughter; in late April she requested a restraining order against Miller.

In May, Miller filed a defamation case against Moreno, citing “the considerable reputational and financial harm” he said she had caused him by leveling abuse allegations.

(It is not Miller’s first defamation case against a former partner; he had previously sued former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham, an ex-girlfriend, for defamation after she had accused him of abuse. He later voluntarily dismissed the case.)

In the course of those legal battles, Moreno further detailed abuse claims. As part of her response to Miller’s defamation suit, Moreno alleged in court documents that in June 2024, before their divorce, Miller had taken “hot water from a pan he had just cooked eggs in and threw it at me.”

“Shocked, I fell to the floor and lay there in a fetal position. Congressman Miller took the sprayer from the sink and continued to spray me with hot water,” Moreno said.

In the court documents, she described the event as “extremely upsetting” and said it was “one of the final straws in our marriage.” Afterward, she said, “Miller handwrote a letter to me, in which he said that he failed to protect me.”

Miller disputes that he threw hot water at her, calling it in his CNN interview “a complete fabrication.” He said the handwritten letter was in reference to a political dispute with her father, not the alleged incident.

Moreno included a picture of the letter in the 110-page filing, as well as photos taken of her arm, neck, and stomach showing red marks following the alleged incident. Miller also disputed that those marks were the result of a water burn, suggesting in the CNN interview that they could have resulted from a sunburn.

Miller has also shared with media outlets, including CNN, audio he recorded of part of a conversation with his ex-wife from August 2024, in which she said Miller never abused her physically but did hurt her mentally and emotionally. Another audio recording shared by Miller includes Moreno acknowledging that she had once been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, but saying that more recently, her therapist found that she did not have the condition. In that same recording, Miller appeared to acknowledge throwing water on Moreno, though he argued he was being playful, did not intend to hurt her and disputed that the water was hot enough to burn.

Moreno’s spokesperson criticized Miller in a statement to CNN for “admitting he secretly recorded family members” and releasing the recordings for “political gain.”

Miller’s defamation lawsuit is ongoing.

Moreno’s attorneys have asked a judge to swiftly dismiss the defamation case.

CNN’s Robert Kuznia, Isabelle Chapman, Morgan Leason and Camila DeChalus contributed to this report