Ohio Congressman Max Miller Is Facing Abuse Allegations. So Why Is Columbus So Quiet?
Rep. Max Miller denies allegations from his ex-wife, Emily Moreno, daughter of Sen. Bernie Moreno.
Ohio has a political scandal sitting in plain sight.
Not hidden in some dark corner of the internet. Not whispered about in back rooms. Not buried in anonymous Reddit threads or political gossip pages. It is out in the open: a sitting Ohio congressman, Representative Max Miller, is facing serious allegations from his ex-wife, Emily Moreno, the daughter of U.S. Senator Bernie Moreno, while Bay Village police continue investigating a report involving suspected child abuse.
And yet, in Columbus, the political capital of this state, the silence has been loud.
Miller, a Republican who represents Ohio’s 7th Congressional District, denies the allegations. No criminal charges have been filed. That matters. Allegations are not convictions, and custody fights can be ugly, complicated, and weaponized by all sides.
But that does not make this story private. Not anymore.
Not when police have confirmed an open investigation. Not when court filings are being reported by multiple outlets. Not when one Ohio Republican congressman is publicly accusing one Ohio Republican senator — his former father-in-law — of helping fuel a campaign to destroy him. And definitely not when the public officials involved are both backed by the same political movement that loves to lecture everyone else about family values, law and order, and protecting children.
According to News 5 Cleveland, Bay Village police are investigating claims of suspected child abuse involving Miller’s young daughter. The outlet reported that a county child protective specialist went to police about “suspected child abuse,” and police said they would not release more details because the investigation remains open. Days later, Emily Moreno filed a motion asking a judge to make her the sole custodian of the couple’s 2-year-old daughter. In that filing, according to News 5, Moreno alleged Miller spoke to her in an aggressive and demeaning manner and engaged in dangerous physical behavior in the child’s presence.
Miller’s side has pushed back hard. His attorney, Larry Zukerman, gave News 5 what he described as a county document saying one report of alleged physical abuse involving Miller’s daughter was “unsubstantiated,” meaning no evidence of child abuse or neglect was found in that specific inquiry. Zukerman called the allegations false. Miller has also sought psychological evaluations in the custody case, arguing that Moreno has made repeated unsubstantiated claims.
That is the legal fog this story sits inside: one side saying there is a pattern of dangerous conduct, the other side saying the allegations are false and politically motivated.
But then the story got bigger.
The Daily Beast reported that Emily Moreno has accused Miller of years of physical abuse, including an alleged February 1 custody exchange where she says Miller struck her while their daughter was present. The outlet reported that photographs obtained by the Daily Mail showed bruising and redness after alleged incidents, and that Bay Village police confirmed it responded to a child-abuse report that day and that the investigation remains open.
The Daily Beast also reported an earlier allegation from June 2024, where Moreno claims Miller threw boiling water at her during an argument while their daughter was home. Miller denies the allegations. His attorney told the Daily Mail that Miller denied the claims, and Miller later posted materials online that he said refuted the reporting.
People reported that Miller publicly accused Sen. Bernie Moreno of funding what Miller called a “malicious campaign” against him. People also reported that Miller called the Daily Mail report false, posted videos and screenshots he said supported his denial, and accused Emily Moreno of focusing on hurting him instead of caring for their child. Sen. Moreno had not publicly responded to Miller’s accusation, according to People’s May 8 report.
So let’s be clear about what we know and what we do not know.
We know there is an open police investigation.
We know there is an active custody battle.
We know Emily Moreno has made serious allegations.
We know Miller denies them.
We know at least one abuse-related inquiry was described by Miller’s attorney as unsubstantiated.
We know the political stakes are high because this is not just any family dispute. This involves a sitting member of Congress, the daughter of a sitting U.S. senator, and two prominent Ohio Republicans tied directly to Donald Trump’s political orbit.
And we know something else: this story has not been treated by much of Ohio’s political media with the urgency it deserves.
News 5 Cleveland has reported on it. National outlets have picked it up. TiffinOhio.net published a detailed summary tying together the Daily Mail reporting, the Daily Beast confirmation, Miller’s denial, and the Ohio Democratic Party’s reaction. The Ohio Capital Journal appears to have included the matter in a May 12 news roundup, but as of this writing, Kin+ did not find a major standalone Columbus newsroom treatment matching the seriousness of the allegations.
That matters.
Because Columbus is where Ohio power gets laundered into respectability.
Columbus is where state officials hold press conferences about “values.” Columbus is where lawmakers pass bills in the name of children, parents, safety, morality, schools, bathrooms, sports, religion, police, and family. Columbus is where political operatives decide which scandals become breaking news and which ones get filed away as “personal matters.”
But when the allegation involves a powerful Republican man, a wealthy family network, a custody fight, and possible abuse, suddenly everybody wants to act like the room got quiet by accident.
It did not.
The silence is part of the story.
This is not about turning domestic violence allegations into a partisan weapon. That would be too cheap and too easy. Domestic violence is not a Democratic issue or a Republican issue. Abuse is abuse. Power is power. Courts are courts. Evidence is evidence. A denial is a denial. An investigation is an investigation.
But the public has a right to ask whether powerful men receive a different level of patience, protection, and presumption than everybody else.
The public has a right to ask whether Ohio’s political class would be this quiet if the accused official were a Democrat from Cleveland, Columbus, or Cincinnati.
The public has a right to ask whether “protect the children” is a real governing principle or just a campaign slogan printed on mailers.
And the public has a right to ask what Ohio’s Republican leadership has to say.
Miller has been a Trump-backed congressman since 2023. Moreno is now one of Ohio’s two U.S. senators. Their family connection was once part of the same Republican power ecosystem. Miller and Emily Moreno married in 2022 at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster, according to the Daily Beast, and later divorced after a bitter split.
Now that the relationship has spilled into court filings, police records, national media, and public accusations.
That is not merely a “messy divorce.”
That is public accountability territory.
There is also another layer here: the legal system itself.
A New York Post report republished by Zashin Law says Miller’s attorneys later acknowledged that his girlfriend was “not likely present” during a February custody exchange, despite Miller previously claiming in a notarized statement and hearing testimony that she was there. Moreno’s attorney then demanded sanctions and attorney fees, arguing that Miller was weaponizing the legal process in the custody dispute. Miller’s attorneys still argued that the video of the exchange showed no altercation.
That detail deserves scrutiny because courts rely on sworn statements. Protection orders rely on credibility. Custody decisions rely on facts. When any party in a case is accused of misrepresenting a witness, that is not a side note. That goes directly to the integrity of the process.
And again, Miller denies wrongdoing.
But denial does not end a story. It defines one side of it.
That is where journalism comes in.
The job is not to convict someone in public. The job is not to run somebody through a digital gallows. The job is to separate what is known, what is alleged, what is denied, what is documented, and what public officials still refuse to answer.
That is what Ohio’s political press should be doing right now.
Not with tabloid thirst. Not with partisan laziness. But with discipline.
Ask Bay Village police for updates.
Ask the Cuyahoga County court for accessible filings.
Ask Miller’s office whether he will answer questions beyond social media posts.
Ask Sen. Moreno’s office whether he denies, confirms, or refuses to address Miller’s accusation that he helped fund a campaign against him.
Ask Ohio Republican leaders whether allegations involving domestic violence and child safety deserve public comment when the accused official is one of their own.
Ask House Republican leadership whether they are monitoring the situation.
Ask the Ohio Democratic Party what accountability looks like beyond campaign messaging.
Ask everyone the same question: if this were your political enemy, would you be louder?
That is the question Columbus should not be allowed to dodge.
Because this is bigger than Max Miller.
It is about what happens when family power, political power, legal power, and media power all collide — and whether Ohioans are expected to look away because the people involved are too connected to touch.
Kin+ will not pretend to know what a court has not decided. But we also will not pretend an open police investigation involving a sitting congressman is just somebody else’s local story.
This is Ohio.
This is power.
And power should never get privacy when the public interest is this clear.
