An Ohio Republican congressman is facing a court motion for contempt after his ex-wife’s legal team says he violated a mutual restraining order by giving a media interview hours after a judge issued it — and then withheld key audio from that interview from discovery, according to a Friday court filing first reported by the New York Post.
7th District Rep. Max Miller sat down for a lengthy interview with the New York Post on Monday, June 1, to address abuse accusations made by his ex-wife, Emily Moreno — hours after a judge had issued a mutual restraining order blocking both sides from disparaging or harassing one another. Miller also spoke with Spectrum News 1 and other outlets following the Post interview.
In a Friday, June 5 court filing, Moreno’s lawyers argued Miller must explain why he should not be held in contempt and why he should not be required to pay her legal fees.
“To be clear, [Moreno] acknowledges that [Miller] is not restrained from talking to the media, nor is he restrained from defending himself. Those actions, by themselves, are not at issue,” her lawyers wrote in the filing.
“What [Moreno] does object to is that [Miller] uses the media to harass, disparage, and abuse Defendant in contravention of this Court’s Restraining Orders, and does so [in] a very visible, very public manner. It must stop.”
Miller’s spokesperson, Chris Vlasto, defended the interview. “Congressman Miller is defending himself against false allegations that have damaged his reputation and continue to cause harm,” Vlasto told the Post. “He is not going to sit back while Emily Moreno and her attorney make claims he believes are untrue and defamatory.”
Vlasto added: “Any assertion that Congressman Miller violated a non-disparagement agreement is simply the characterization of Ms. Moreno’s counsel, and he strongly disputes it. Congressman Miller will continue to defend himself and pursue the appropriate legal remedies.”
The contempt motion is not the only new legal development. During the Post interview, Miller’s team shared audio they said captured a private conversation between Miller and Moreno that took place weeks after the alleged incident in which Moreno claims Miller threw boiling water on her back on June 9, 2024 — an allegation Miller denies.
In the audio, Miller can be heard saying: “First of all, the water incident — which I have the text messages from that we have, even following up after that, I never thought that — that hurt you, and you know that.”
He continued: “If you want to accuse me of abuse by showing photos and no video evidence of something that I wasn’t even being abusive for, by all means, go ahead and do that.”
Moreno’s lawyers argued in a separate Friday filing that Miller had not disclosed the audio during the discovery process, and that the Post’s published story served as proof. They filed a motion to compel Miller to turn it over. Her legal team also argued that the second statement in the audio — in which Miller appears to give Moreno conditional permission to make the accusations — should be used as grounds to dismiss Miller’s May 2026 defamation lawsuit against her entirely.
Miller, a two-term congressman representing northeast Ohio’s 7th Congressional District, filed that defamation suit against Moreno, her attorney Andrew Zashin, and Zashin’s law firm on May 14 in Cleveland. The suit cited coverage of the abuse allegations in the Daily Mail, the Daily Beast, TMZ, and the New York Post, and alleged the resulting damage “undermines his chances of reelection.” It seeks compensatory damages in excess of $25,000, punitive damages, and attorney’s fees.
Emily Moreno is the daughter of Ohio U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno (R), who won his Senate seat in 2024 with backing from President Donald Trump. Miller married Emily in 2022, and the couple had a daughter in 2023. Miller filed for divorce in August 2024 as his father-in-law was in the midst of his Senate campaign. The divorce was finalized in June 2025, but the custody dispute over the couple’s now 2-year-old daughter has continued in court.
Moreno has alleged that Miller threw boiling water on her back and has raised questions about a broken collarbone sustained by their daughter. Miller’s office has provided documentation that two child abuse allegations were investigated by the Cuyahoga County Division of Children and Family Services and deemed unsubstantiated. Miller has also previously obtained a court-issued restraining order against Moreno after a judge found she had made “proven false allegations.”
The legal battle carries echoes of an earlier dispute. When Miller first ran for Congress in 2021, his then-girlfriend, former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham, publicly accused him of physical abuse in her memoir and in a Washington Post op-ed. Miller filed a defamation lawsuit against Grisham; he voluntarily dismissed it with prejudice in August 2023, just before the case was set to go to trial.
Moreno’s spokesperson, Stefan Mychajliw, invoked that history in a statement last month. “Mr. Miller is upset because he’s tried to silence Emily Moreno the same way he silenced Stephanie Grisham — and Emily won’t let him,” Mychajliw said, adding that “Mr. Miller will not silence Ms. Moreno.”
Miller is seeking reelection in November. Democrat Brian Poindexter, a five-term local councilman and union ironworker, is challenging him in Ohio’s 7th Congressional District.
