Rep. Max Miller stands accused of holding a gun to his ex-wife’s head, pouring scalding water on her, and fracturing their 2-year-old daughter’s collarbone. House Speaker Mike Johnson’s response: he’ll still endorse him for reelection, and it’s not his job to get involved in his members’ “domestic events.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson has continued to back Rep. Max Miller for reelection despite an ongoing House Ethics Committee investigation into domestic abuse allegations, including a claim that Miller fractured his 2-year-old daughter’s collarbone.
What Miller Is Actually Accused Of
Miller, an Ohio Republican and former Trump aide, is in the middle of a child custody battle with his ex-wife, Emily Moreno, daughter of Ohio Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno. In court filings, Moreno has accused Miller of holding a gun to her head, throwing scalding hot water on her, and breaking their young daughter’s collarbone.
The House Ethics Committee opened a formal investigation into the abuse allegations, along with separate allegations of drug use. Miller has denied the accusations, describing the hot water incident as “horseplay,” and has said he won’t end his reelection campaign. He announced he would file his own request for an ethics investigation into himself, writing on X: “I have absolutely nothing to hide. We will be providing the committee everything they need.”
Separately, in the course of trying to publicly clear his name, Miller shared material involving his daughter that Moreno and multiple outlets have described as constituting child sexual abuse material. Miller has disputed that characterization, telling CNN’s Jake Tapper the material had already surfaced as part of a Child Protective Services investigation and that reporting on it was “being taken very much out of context.” That underlying dispute is itself now part of what the Ethics Committee is examining.
Johnson’s Response, Twice Now
Asked directly by CNN’s Manu Raju whether he’d still endorse Miller for reelection given the allegations, Johnson didn’t hesitate. “Yes,” he said. “He has been a great member of Congress. He has some issues in his personal life he’s working through. The House Ethics Committee is looking into that and any implications it may have.” Johnson added his standard line: “We have to let due process play out.”
Weeks later, in an interview with Politico’s Dasha Burns, Johnson went further in downplaying his own role. “There’s all sorts of domestic events going on with 435 members of Congress all the time,” Johnson said. “It’s not my business to get engaged in it.” He added, “I think Max is taking them seriously. I think our colleagues are.”
That’s the Speaker of the House, the top-ranked elected Republican in the country, describing an active criminal-adjacent allegation involving a toddler’s fractured bone as a “domestic event” outside his purview.
Even Miller’s Own In-Laws Have Turned on Him
This isn’t a case where the allegations are coming from a purely partisan source Republicans can easily dismiss. Moreno’s father is Sen. Bernie Moreno, a sitting Republican senator and Trump ally. Sen. Moreno has publicly sided with his daughter, saying Miller “needs to seek professional help to end the clear pattern of abuse he has left in his wake,” and has called for his former son-in-law to resign and drop his reelection bid entirely.
When Republicans’ own party apparatus, up to and including a sitting GOP senator, is calling for a member’s resignation over these allegations, Johnson’s continued endorsement stands out even more starkly.
The Double Standard Question Johnson Couldn’t Answer
Reporters have directly pressed Johnson on why Democrats moved quickly to remove Senate nominee Graham Platner from the ballot in Maine over past controversy, while Republicans have taken no comparable action against Miller. Johnson’s answer, according to Truthout’s reporting, pointed to differences in “the GOP law[suit process]” rather than addressing the substance of the comparison, an answer that sidesteps the question of why one party’s candidate faced swift consequences while the other’s has faced none.
The Bottom Line
A sitting member of Congress stands accused, in his own ex-wife’s court filings, of holding a gun to her head, pouring boiling water on her, and fracturing their toddler daughter’s collarbone, allegations serious enough that even his father-in-law, a Republican U.S. senator, has called for his resignation. The Speaker of the House has responded by continuing to endorse him for reelection and describing the entire situation as a “domestic event” that isn’t his business to weigh in on.