Rep. Max Miller’s (R-Ohio) ex-wife, Emily Moreno, on Wednesday sued the Ohio Republican, alleging he published a nude photo of their young daughter online.
A copy of the federal lawsuit obtained by The Hill alleges that Miller “recklessly published and disclosed to the world a nude image” of the child.
It says that Miller “recklessly and intentionally” gave the photo, as part of a Dropbox folder, to his lawyer Aaron Minc as part of a tranche of documents and photos “to salvage his political job” against Emily Moreno’s claims of domestic abuse.
Miller then posted a link to the Dropbox folder to the social platform X after a live stream defending himself.
“But despite repeated requests from Ms. Moreno’s counsel, Defendants have refused to provide information about how many times Defendents disclosed and transferred the intimate image to viewers who accessed, viewed or downloaded the intimate image,” the suit reads. “Nor will Defendants answer questions about who might have accessed, viewed or downloaded the image.”
Moreno claimed in the lawsuit that more than 400,000 people accessed the Dropbox folder and says she said she never gave Miller or Minc consent to publish the images in the Dropbox.
“Miller’s recklessness is underscored by the fact that any parent knows — in this era and world filled with pedophiles, creeps, and AI-generated image alteration and video generation — not to put nude pictures of their child, or any child, on the public internet,” she wrote in the suit.
Minc has taken responsibility for the images being made available to the public, telling Politico that he was the “only person responsible for assembling, creating, reviewing, adding, deleting, redacting, or making any changes to the information and files that were in this folder.”
Miller and Moreno divorced last year and have been embroiled in a bitter custody battle over their daughter. Moreno has alleged Miller threw scalding water at her, held a gun to her head and may have broken their daughter’s collarbone.
The Ohio Republican has vehemently and repeatedly denied allegations. He has vowed to remain in his reelection race despite calls to drop out or resign, including from Emily Moreno’s father, Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio).
“When he went out and did what he did — including releasing photos of my granddaughter completely naked, that now you have hundreds of thousands of psychotic human beings that have that — and to say ‘oops’ is grotesque,” the senator told reporters. “My personal opinion is that this is a felony, and that every single human being that touched that photo and transmitted it electronically should go to jail because it is illegal to do that.”
Miller told CNN earlier this month that he will remain in the race for his seat, telling the network’s Jake Tapper that he has “the utmost confidence that my constituents back home know me.”
Tapper brought up the photo during their interview, characterizing the act of sharing it as “shockingly reckless behavior.” Miller defended himself and said Minc “took full responsibility.”
“I wouldn’t say that it’s shockingly reckless,” Miller said.
The lawsuit requests that a judge find Miller and Minc’s actions violated Ohio state and federal laws, award the daughter with $150,000 in damages and enter judgment in the daughter’s favor to all claims of relief, among others.
The Hill has reached out to Miller’s campaign for comment.
Sen. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) on Sunday became one of the latest members of Congress to react, calling the allegations against Miller “deeply troubling.”
The House Ethics Committee earlier this month launched a probe into Miller after he filed paperwork to have the panel investigate him. The committee said it was reviewing allegations of domestic violence and abuse or illegal drug use.
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