Emily Moreno, the daughter of U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), filed a motion in Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas on Wednesday asking a judge to throw out the defamation lawsuit her ex-husband, U.S. Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio), brought against her two weeks ago over published allegations that he physically abused her.
The 31-page motion invokes Ohio’s Uniform Public Expression Protection Act — the state’s new anti-SLAPP statute that took effect April 9, 2025 — and seeks dismissal of Miller’s claims with prejudice, an expedited hearing within 60 days, and a court order requiring Miller to pay her attorney fees, court costs, and other litigation expenses, all of which the statute makes mandatory if her motion is granted.
“Political candidate and Congressman Max Miller seeks to silence a woman who has information about his misdeeds,” the motion opens. “The First Amendment to the United States Constitution and Ohio’s Uniform Public Expression Protection Act (‘UPEPA’) prohibit him from succeeding.”
What Miller’s lawsuit alleges
Miller, who represents Ohio’s 7th Congressional District and is up for re-election in November, filed the underlying defamation complaint on May 13 in the same Cuyahoga County court. The lawsuit names Moreno along with her divorce attorney Andrew Zashin and his firm, Zashin Law, and seeks at least $25,000 in damages plus punitive damages “in an amount sufficient to punish Defendants and deter future similar conduct.”
Miller’s complaint focuses on two statements published in a May 7 Daily Mail article that TiffinOhio.net previously covered: that Miller hurled a pot of boiling water at Moreno during a June 2024 argument, with some of the water hitting her in the chest; and that Miller wrote his then-wife a handwritten letter the same day apologizing for “failing to protect her” without admitting to abuse. Miller’s complaint alleges Moreno “caused” those statements to be published.
Moreno’s UPEPA defense
Moreno’s motion, filed by The Chandra Law Firm of Cleveland, argues that Miller cannot succeed for four independent reasons under UPEPA.
First, the motion contends that accusations of abuse against a sitting congressman and congressional candidate are matters of public concern at the core of First Amendment protection. UPEPA, by statute, requires courts to “broadly construe and apply” its scope, and the motion cites U.S. Supreme Court precedent that criticism of public officials is “the kind of speech the First Amendment was primarily designed to keep within the area of free discussion.”
Second, Moreno argues that Ohio’s one-year statute of limitations on defamation has expired on any private statements she made about Miller — including statements to her parents, attorneys, and the court-appointed parenting coordinator dating back to 2024 and 2025.
Third, the motion includes a sworn affidavit in which Moreno states she has never spoken to a Daily Mail reporter, never directed anyone to leak information to the publication on her behalf, and ignored an August 2024 text message from Daily Mail reporter Kelly Laco that she attaches as an exhibit. The motion argues Miller himself publicized the underlying allegations through his own March 9 filing in the couple’s domestic-relations case and through an April 24 New York Post article that referenced the police reports — both publicly available sources reporters could have followed up on without any leak from Moreno.
Fourth, and most significant for the public record, the motion argues that the statements in the Daily Mail were true or substantially true.
What the affidavit and deposition say
According to the sworn affidavit Moreno filed with the motion, on Saturday, June 8, 2024, she told Miller she planned to leave him. She describes what followed as a two-part attack. First, Miller — who had just been cooking eggs — took the hot water from the pan and threw it at her. She fell to the floor in a fetal position, the affidavit states, after which Miller “took the sprayer from the sink and continued to spray me with hot water.” She took their daughter and fled to her parents’ home that day. Photographs documenting red marks on her body, taken the same day and attached to the affidavit, were also filed with the motion as exhibits.
The motion goes further, citing what it describes as Miller’s own admission to one part of that account. In an October 2025 meeting with court-appointed parenting coordinator Deborah Koricke, Moreno told Koricke about the hot-water incident. On May 12, 2026, Miller’s own divorce attorney Pamela J. McAdams deposed Koricke as part of the domestic-relations case. According to an excerpt of the deposition transcript filed as Exhibit A-7 to the motion, Koricke testified that Miller confirmed he sprayed Moreno with the sink hose. The motion cites Koricke Deposition Transcript at 16:6–14, and notes the full deposition is a public record in the Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Division.
Miller’s admission, according to the motion, was limited to the second part of Moreno’s account — the sink-sprayer — and the motion concedes that “Miller did not say that the water was boiling.” His defamation complaint targets only the first part of the account: the Daily Mail’s description of him hurling a pot of boiling water. Moreno’s motion argues that distinction does not save Miller’s claim, because under Ohio law, substantial truth is an absolute defense to defamation. The “gist” or “sting” of the Daily Mail’s account — that Miller attacked his then-wife with hot water during the June 2024 incident — is true regardless of whether the water came from a pan or a sink hose, the motion contends, because Miller admitted to attacking her with hot water during the same encounter.
The motion also quotes from the handwritten letter Miller is alleged to have written. According to Exhibit A-1, the letter reads in part: “I do know you love me, protect me, and care for me. I failed to do that for you… I’m sorry I failed you and [daughter]. …I’m so sorry.”
A footnote in the motion asserts that “Miller previously falsely claimed that the letter didn’t exist,” citing a May 14 Politico article.
The motion also discloses that Bay Village police interviewed Moreno on February 23, 2026, as part of the open investigation into the couple’s then-2-year-old daughter’s broken collarbone. During that interview, Moreno told the officer about the 2024 hot-water incident, and the officer included her statement in the incident report — a document that is itself a public record and is attached as Exhibit A-8.
Miller dropped a separate case the day before
The motion arrives one day after Miller voluntarily dismissed a separate lawsuit he had filed against Moreno in February alleging she was pushing false domestic violence allegations against him. Miller’s filing dismissing that case Tuesday cited his daughter’s “well-being and best interests.” He did not move to dismiss the defamation suit.
Miller has denied the abuse allegations. His spokesperson told the Associated Press that Cuyahoga County Division of Children and Family Services investigated several allegations that he abused his daughter and deemed them unsubstantiated. The May 13 complaint says the allegations are “simply an attempt to destroy my personal and professional reputation.”
Background and what’s next
Miller, 37, was elected to Ohio’s 7th Congressional District in 2022 with Donald Trump’s endorsement after working on Trump’s 2016 and 2020 campaigns. He and Emily Moreno married at Trump’s Bedminster golf club in August 2022; he filed for divorce on their second wedding anniversary in August 2024. They share a 3-year-old daughter, with a joint-custody arrangement and $2,500 in monthly child support from Miller under their June 2025 divorce settlement.
The motion notes Miller’s history of using litigation in response to public abuse allegations. In October 2021, he sued former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham for defamation after she publicly accused him of physical abuse during their prior relationship. Miller dropped that suit in August 2023.
Under UPEPA, all other proceedings in Miller’s defamation case are automatically stayed until the court rules on Moreno’s motion or any appeal of that ruling concludes — and any adverse decision is immediately appealable as an interlocutory matter. The court must hold a hearing within 60 days unless it allows limited discovery, and must rule within 60 days after that hearing.
The case is Max Miller v. Emily Moreno, et al., Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Case No. CV-26-138810, assigned to Judge Joy Kennedy.
