In new police videos obtained by NCS, the ex-wife of Ohio Rep. Max Miller emotionally describes abuse allegations towards him, together with 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 psychological sickness.
The videos, amongst a number of recordings obtained by NCS via a public information request, supply contemporary particulars in a contentious authorized battle that now features a custody battle, 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 launched 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 damaged collarbone.
No costs had been finally filed by prosecutors in reference to their daughter’s accidents and the police division advised NCS there aren’t any different open investigations involving Miller or Moreno.
Although police redacted her face from the recording, Moreno might be heard crying as she described the alleged gun incident and in addition recounted how Miller allegedly threw her towards a wall throughout a custody trade earlier this 12 months.
In video redacted by police, Emily Moreno says ex-husband Rep. Max Miller as soon as held a gun to her
In a prolonged on-camera interview with NCS, Miller reiterated his denial that he ever abused his ex-wife and mentioned her declare that he held a gun to her was a “complete fabrication.”
“I am fighting to clear my name,” he mentioned. “And that will come out in the truth.”
Moreno declined an interview with NCS. Her lawyer Andrew Zashin, in a press release, mentioned “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 additional detailed abuse claims amid their ongoing custody dispute, together with alleging in courtroom paperwork and testimony that the congressman as soon as threw scorching water at her throughout their marriage. After these stories surfaced within the media, Miller filed a defamation go well with towards his ex-wife and her lawyer.
Last week, a choose issued a restraining order to each Moreno and Miller ordering them to not “threaten, abuse, annoy or interfere” with one another, amongst different restrictions.
The combative household dispute is taking part in out towards the backdrop of MAGA politics in Ohio and has turn into a problem in Miller’s marketing campaign for reelection in what has been thought of a solidly Republican congressional seat. While Miller received his major unopposed on May 5, he faces off in November towards Democrat Brian Poindexter, a union iron employee.
“This isn’t going to affect my chances at reelection,” Miller advised NCS. “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 however embrace audio of their interviews, make clear some of the abuse claims which have roiled their custody dispute and depict each Moreno and Miller describing their fractured relationship in their very own phrases.
NCS reporter asks Rep. Max Miller to answer abuse allegations
Moreno and Miller, who was a senior advisor for President Donald Trump throughout his first time period, had been married in 2022 in a ceremony on 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 started investigating whether or not there was proof of youngster abuse in February after the couple’s younger daughter’s collarbone damage. According to the police report obtained by NCS, officers had been linked with a Child Protection Specialist acquainted with the household’s state of affairs.
In her police interview, Moreno advised authorities her worry of Miller led her to go away the wedding.
“I was just, like, scared of him a lot, and that’s why I left the house and why I moved out,” Moreno mentioned.
During the interview, Moreno detailed two particular incidents, together with one encounter on New Year’s Eve in which she alleged that Miller put a gun on her as she was altering their toddler 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 mentioned.
She mentioned Miller yelled at her.
“So when does the gun come into play?” the officer requested.
“When I’m changing,” Moreno mentioned.
“And what does he do?”
“Holds it on me,” Moreno mentioned.
When the officer requested Moreno if she may present the place Miller held the gun on her, she started crying. A police incident report launched to the media indicated the gun was allegedly held to her head.
Moreno advised police that whereas she had advised her therapist in regards to the incident, she didn’t report it to authorities on the time as a result of she feared nobody would consider her.
When police within the interview requested her if she then wished to report it, she declined.
Miller, within the interview with NCS, mentioned the incident by no means occurred and that he shops his weapons in a locked secure.
“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 mentioned.
In her interview with police, Moreno mentioned after the start of their daughter, her relationship with Miller worsened and Miller would get “mad” when the newborn was crying.
She advised police that Miller seldom wished to spend time together with her and the newborn, saying he would usually go into his bed room. Moreno mentioned she by no means noticed him being abusive with their youngster.
In video redacted by police, Rep. Max Miller describes ex-wife’s interactions with him to police
Miller denied the characterization that he wasn’t engaged together with his household, telling NCS, “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 mentioned 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 dysfunction analysis. In a press release to NCS, her spokesperson mentioned that Miller “is making accusations without evidence.”
Prompted by officers, Moreno additionally described one other incident when she was allegedly abused by Miller in February.
Moreno, who was dwelling individually from Miller on the time, mentioned when she arrived at Miller’s home to deliver the kid to a day birthday celebration, her daughter was nonetheless in her pajamas. Moreno mentioned Miller acquired 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 mentioned she and her daughter went to the birthday celebration.
Moreno additionally detailed the allegation throughout a courtroom listening to final month, telling the courtroom 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 NCS interview, he mentioned that Moreno texted him within the days afterward to ask him to lunch and different social interactions. He shared pictures of the texts in that trade. He additionally pointed to Ring digital camera video that he has posted on-line that he mentioned was from the day of the incident and appeared to point out Moreno leaving his dwelling with out incident.
Asked within the courtroom listening to in regards to the video and if she agreed she didn’t “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 didn’t ask Miller to reply on to Moreno’s allegations of abuse, although Miller and his legal professionals did return to speak to police weeks later to allege that Moreno was making false statements.
NCS’s overview of courtroom paperwork and police information present the authorized feud between Moreno and Miller escalating within the months after the February police investigation into their daughter’s damage.
On February 27, Miller requested and was granted a protecting order, arguing that he was feeling “harassed and that she is stalking his schedule.”
On March 5, Moreno filed a request in courtroom to reopen their custody settlement, alleging that Miller had “conducted dangerous physical behavior” round their daughter; in late April she requested a restraining order towards Miller.
In May, Miller filed a defamation case towards Moreno, citing “the considerable reputational and financial harm” he mentioned she had brought on him by leveling abuse allegations.
(It will not be Miller’s first defamation case towards a former accomplice; he had beforehand 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 these authorized battles, Moreno additional detailed abuse claims. As half of her response to Miller’s defamation go well with, Moreno alleged in courtroom paperwork that in June 2024, earlier than 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 mentioned.
In the courtroom paperwork, she described the occasion as “extremely upsetting” and mentioned it was “one of the final straws in our marriage.” Afterward, she mentioned, “Miller handwrote a letter to me, in which he said that he failed to protect me.”
Miller disputes that he threw scorching water at her, calling it in his NCS interview “a complete fabrication.” He mentioned the handwritten letter was in reference to a political dispute together with her father, not the alleged incident.
Moreno included an image of the letter within the 110-page submitting, in addition to pictures taken of her arm, neck, and abdomen exhibiting purple marks following the alleged incident. Miller additionally disputed that these marks had been the consequence of a water burn, suggesting within the NCS interview that they may have resulted from a sunburn.
Miller has additionally shared with media shops, together with NCS, audio he recorded of half of a dialog together with his ex-wife from August 2024, in which she mentioned Miller by no means abused her bodily however did harm her mentally and emotionally. Another audio recording shared by Miller consists of Moreno acknowledging that she had as soon as been identified with bipolar dysfunction, however saying that extra not too long ago, her therapist discovered that she didn’t have the situation. In that very same recording, Miller appeared to acknowledge throwing water on Moreno, although he argued he was being playful, didn’t intend to harm her and disputed that the water was scorching sufficient to burn.
Moreno’s spokesperson criticized Miller in a press release to NCS for “admitting he secretly recorded family members” and releasing the recordings for “political gain.”
Miller’s defamation lawsuit is ongoing.
Moreno’s attorneys have requested a choose to swiftly dismiss the defamation case.
NCS’s Robert Kuznia, Isabelle Chapman, Morgan Leason and Camila DeChalus contributed to this report